The Effects of Public Place Smoking Restrictions on Individual Smoking Behaviour in Australia

While smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death in Australia, existing policy options, except for bans on smoking at public places, seem to have limited scope for expansion. Eight new smoking bans, introduced in six different Australian jurisdictions over 2003 and 2005, provide a basis for evaluation. The analysis extends a popular two-part model of smoking behaviour by GLM and correlated random effect models. Difference-in-differences estimation using 4 waves of the Household, Income, Labour Dynamics Australia Survey indicates that neither the probability nor the intensity of smoking was affected. The results are robust to alternative specifications and estimation methods.smoking; smoke-free law; tobacco regulation

Prospect Theory and Mutual Fund Flows

We evaluate the hypothesis that investors seek portfolios that display attractive return distributions in terms of Prospect Theory (PT). We consider the mutual fund market in the U.S. as an interesting testbed because fund investors are known to be return-chasing and about a half of U.S. households own mutual funds. Using monthly flow data from 1999-2019, we find that mutual funds attract higher net flows when they have better PT values. We obtain similar results when PT is replaced with Rank-Dependent Utility, a closely related theory that does not require a particular choice of reference points. Our results are consistent with recent evidence that fund flows exhibit heightened sensitivity to extreme performance measures

lclogit2: An enhanced module to estimate latent class conditional logit models

This paper describes Stata command lclogit2, an enhanced version of lclogit (Pacifico and Yoo, 2013). Like its predecessor, lclogit2 uses the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm to estimate latent class conditional logit (LCL) models. But it executes the EM algorithm's core algebraic operations in Mata, and runs considerably faster as a result. It also allows linear constraints on parameters to be imposed in a more convenient and flexible manner. It comes with parallel command lclogitml2, a new standalone program that uses gradient-based algorithms to estimate LCL models. Both lclogit2 and lclogitml2 are supported by a new postestimation tool, lclogitwtp2, that evaluates willingness-to-pay measures implied by estimated LCL models

The seeming unreliability of rank-ordered data as a consequence of model misspecification

The rank-ordered logit model's coefficients often vary significantly with the depth of rankings used in the estimation process. The common interpretation of the unstable coefficients across ranks is that survey respondents state their more and less preferred alternatives in an incoherent manner. We point out another source of the same empirical regularity: stochastic misspecification of the random utility function. An example is provided to show how the well-known symptoms of incoherent ranking behavior can result from stochastic misspecification, followed by Monte Carlo evidence. Our finding implies that the empirical regularity can be addressed by the development of robust estimation methods

The seeming unreliability of rank-ordered data as a consequence of model misspecification

The rank-ordered logit model's coefficients often vary significantly with the depth of rankings used in the estimation process. The common interpretation of the unstable coefficients across ranks is that survey respondents state their more and less preferred alternatives in an incoherent manner. We point out another source of the same empirical regularity: stochastic misspecification of the random utility function. An example is provided to show how the well-known symptoms of incoherent ranking behavior can result from stochastic misspecification, followed by Monte Carlo evidence. Our finding implies that the empirical regularity can be addressed by the development of robust estimation methods

Constant Discounting, Temporal Instability and Dynamic Inconsistency in Denmark: A Longitudinal Field Experiment

Claims that individuals have dynamically inconsistent preferences are usually made by studying individual discount rates over different time delays, but where those discount rates are elicited at a single point in time. However, to test dynamic inconsistency one has to know if the same subject has a different discounting function at a later point in time. We evaluate data from a longitudinal field experiment undertaken with a nationally representative sample of the adult Danish population. We cannot reject the hypothesis of constant discounting at the population level, but we reject the hypotheses of temporal stability and dynamic consistency

Risk Attitudes, Sample Selection and Attrition in a Longitudinal Field Experiment

Longitudinal experiments allow one to evaluate the temporal stability of latent preferences, but raise concerns about sample selection and attrition that may confound inferences about temporal stability. We evaluate the hypothesis of temporal stability in risk preferences using a remarkable data set that combines socio-demographic information from the Danish Civil Registry with information on risk attitudes from a longitudinal field experiment. Our experimental design builds in explicit randomization on the incentives for participation. The results show that the use of different participation incentives can affect sample response rates and help identify the effects of selection. Correcting for endogenous sample selection and panel attrition changes inferences about risk preferences in an economically and statistically significant manner. Estimates of risk preferences change with these corrections. In general we find evidence consistent with temporal stability of risk preferences when one corrects for selection and attrition

Production of Transgenic Cloned Miniature Pigs with Membrane-bound Human Fas Ligand (FasL) by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

Cell-mediated xenograft rejection, including NK cells and CD8+ CTL, is a major obstacle in successful pig-to-human xenotransplantation. Human CD8+ CTL and NK cells display high cytotoxicity for pig cells, mediated at least in part by the Fas/FasL pathway. To prevent cell-mediated xenocytotoxicity, a membrane-bound form of human FasL (mFasL) was generated as an inhibitor for CTL and NK cell cytotoxicity that could not be cleaved by metalloproteinase to produce putative soluble FasL. We produced two healthy transgenic pigs harboring the mFasL gene via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). In a cytotoxicity assay using transgenic clonal cell lines and transgenic pig ear cells, the rate of CD8+ CTL-mediated cytotoxicity was significantly reduced in transgenic pig's ear cells compared with that in normal minipig fetal fibroblasts. Our data indicate that grafts of transgenic pigs expressing membrane-bound human FasL control the cellular immune response to xenografts, creating a window of opportunity to facilitate xenograft survival