Modelling the Incidence of Self-Employment: Individual and Employment Type Heterogeneity

Modelling the incidence of self-employment has traditionally proved problematic. Whilst the individual supply side characteristics of the self-employed are well documented, we argue that the literature has largely neglected demand-side aspects. We explore the determinants of self-employment using individual level data drawn from the U.S. Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). We present results from an econometric framework, the Parameterised Dogit model, that allows us to separately, and simultaneously, model individual heterogeneity (i.e. supply side) and employment type heterogeneity (i.e. demand-side) influences that determine self-employment. Our findings suggest that whilst individual characteristics are important determinants of self-employment, there are also factors which are specific to the type of employment that influence whether an individual is self-employed

Modelling Charitable Donations to an Unexpected Natural Disaster: Evidence from the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics

Using household-level data, we explore the relationship between donations to the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami disaster and other charitable donations. The empirical evidence suggests that donations specifically for the victims of the tsunami are positively associated with the amount previously donated to other charitable causes, which accords with complementary rather than substitution effects. This relationship exists when we decompose overall charitable donations into different types of philanthropy, with charitable contributions to caring, needy and religious organizations having the largest positive association with donations to the victims of the tsunami. When we explore the impact of donations to the victims of the tsunami on future donations to charity, however, our findings suggest an inverse relationship with the largest inverse association with donations to needy and caring organizations

Modelling charitable donations: A latent class panel approach

We apply a latent class tobit framework to the analysis of charitable donations at the household level where the latent class aspect of the model splits households into two groups, which we subsequently interpret as "low" donators and "high" donators. Then the tobit part of the model explores the determinants of the amount donated by each household conditional on being in that class. We consider both total donations and also separately religious donations. Our findings, which are based on US panel data, suggest that price and labour income elasticities differ substantially across the two classes. The inverse price effect is most pronounced for the "low" donators group for both total and religious donations. The labour income elasticity switches direction of influence upon charitable donations across the two latent classes with a negative influence for the "high" donators group and a positive influence for the "low" donators group, for the case of total donations to charity, a pattern which is reversed in the case of solely religious donations

Modelling Charitable Donations to an Unexpected Natural Disaster: Evidence from the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics

Using household-level data, we explore the relationship between donations to the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami disaster and other charitable donations. The empirical evidence suggests that donations specifically for the victims of the tsunami are positively associated with the amount previously donated to other charitable causes, which accords with complementary rather than substitution effects. This relationship exists when we decompose overall charitable donations into different types of philanthropy, with charitable contributions to caring, needy and religious organizations having the largest positive association with donations to the victims of the tsunami. When we explore the impact of donations to the victims of the tsunami on future donations to charity, however, our findings suggest an inverse relationship with the largest inverse association with donations to needy and caring organizations

Modelling primary health care use: a panel zero inflated interval regression approach

We introduce the (panel) zero-inflated interval regression (ZIIR) model, to investigate GP visits using individual-level data from the British Household Panel Survey. The ZIIR is particularly suitable for this application as it jointly estimates the probability of visiting the GP and then, conditional on visiting, the frequency of visits (defined by given numerical intervals in the data). The results show that different socio-economic factors influence the probability of visiting the GP and the frequency of visits

The host range, annual cycle and parasitoids of the African rice gall midge Orseolia oryzivora (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) in central and southeast Nigeria

Host range experiments and field sampling in Nigeria produced no evidence that African rice gall midge, Orseolia oryzivora Harris - Gagné, can develop on plants other than Oryza species. Sampling in three outbreak areas during 1994 showed that the insect's annual cycle varied according to the agroecological zone and rice cropping pattern. In the humid forest zone, Orseolia oryzivora persisted through the short dry season on ratoons of cultivated rice Oryza sativa at a rainfed site and on dry season rice crops at an irrigated one. In contrast, at rainfed sites in the moist savannah zone the pest survived the longer dry season on the perennial wild rice O. longistaminata, while ratoons and volunteers of O. sativa provided 'bridges' between the wild host and wet season rice crops. Early in the wet season at rainfed sites, galls of Orseolia oryzivora were not found at high density on wild rice, ratoons or volunteers. The heavy infestations which developed by October resulted primarily from rapid multiplication on rice crops themselves during the wet season. At all 13 sites sampled, the large majority of galls were found on fallow or cropped rice fields, rather than in ditches, bunds or uncultivated wetland, irrespective of the time of year or the hosts involved. From gall dissections, the parasitoids Aprostocetus procerae (Risbec) and Platygaster diplosisae Risbec caused over 30% mortality at some sites by October but generally increased too late to prevent crop damage. Implications of the results for the management of Orseolia oryzivora are discusse

Financial expectations and household consumption : does middle inflation matter?

Using British panel data, we explore the Finding that households often expect their financial position to remain unchanged compared to other alternatives, using a generalised middle inflated ordered probit (GMIOP) model. In doing so we account for the tendency of individuals to choose ‘neutral’ responses when faced with attitudinal and opinion-based questions, which are a common feature of survey data. Our empirical analysis strongly supports the use of a GMIOP model to account for this response pattern. Expectations indices based on competing discrete choice models are then exploited to explore the role that financial expectations play in driving the consumption of different types of durable goods and the amount of expenditure undertaken. Whilst financial optimism is significantly associated with consumption, indices which fail to take into account middle-inflation are found to overestimate the impact of financial expectations

Postcapitalist precarious work and those in the 'drivers' seat: Exploring the motivations and lived experiences of Uber drivers in Canada

In this inductive, qualitative study, we observe how Uber, a company often hailed as being the poster-child of the sharing economy facilitated through a digital platform may also at times represent and reinforce postcapitalist hyper-exploitation. Drawing on the motivations and lived experiences of 31 Uber drivers in Toronto, Canada, we provide insights into three groups of Uber drivers: (1) those that are driving part-time to earn extra money in conjunction with studying or doing other jobs; (2) those that are unemployed and for whom driving for Uber is the only source of income; (3) professional drivers, who are trying to keep pace with the durable digital landscape and competitive marketplace. We emphasize the ways in which each driver group simultaneously acknowledges and rejects their own precarious employment by distancing techniques such as minimizing the risks and accentuating the advantages of the driver role. We relate these findings to a broader discussion about how driving for Uber fuels the traditional capitalist narrative that working hard and having a dream will lead to advancement, security and success. We conclude by discussing other alternative economies within the sharing economy

Distribution of serotonin (5-HT) and dopamine (DA) on digestive tract of red palm weevil larva, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Coleoptera: Dryophthoridae)

The red palm weevil (RPW), Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Coleoptera: Dryopthoridae) is a well-known deadly pest of palmae tree worldwide. The larvae of RPW is the most destructive stage of its life cycle and caused great economic lost to palm tree plantation for example the coconut tree plantations. In this study, we focused on detection of two important biogenic amines, serotonin (5-HT) and dopamine (DA) that play important roles in the regulation of the digestive tract of this insect. Immunohistochemistry analysis has been carried out on the cross-sectioned tissue of three different parts of the digestive tract; foregut, midgut and hindgut. 5-HT receptor for serotonin and D1 receptor for dopamine were chosen for chromogenic detection of the biogenic amine. The distribution of 5-HT can be detected at the plasma membrane, basement membrane and cytoplasm of the cell for the whole guts except at the midgut cell. While DA can only be detected at the basal membrane of the gut cell for the most part of the gut. Further study could be done to find a possible solution in controlling the survival of RPW by understanding the roles of the biogenic amine in controlling and modulating the mechanism of absorption and digestion of the digestive tract

Modelling the composition of household portfolios: a latent class approach

We introduce the latent class modelling approach to the analysis of financial portfolio diversification at the household level. We explore portfolio allocation in Great Britain using household panel data based on a nationally representative sample of the population, namely the Wealth and Assets Survey. The latent class aspect of the model splits households into four groups, which serves to unveil a more detailed picture of the determinants of portfolio diversification than existing econometric approaches. Our findings reveal a pattern of class heterogeneity that conventional econometric models are unable to identify as the statistical significance as well as the direction of the effect of some explanatory variables varies across the four classes. When comparing our preferred latent class estimator to the commonly used approaches, we find that treating the population as a single homogeneous group may lead to biased parameter estimates and suggests that policy based on such models could be inappropriate or erroneous