Semi-Public Competitions *

Abstract The process of innovation is driven by two main factors: new inventions and institutions supporting the transformation of inventions into marketable innovations. This paper proposes a new institution, called a semi-public competition, that has been neglected by the economic literature but exists frequently in practice. I show how semi-public competitions can mitigate a dilemma that arises at an early stage of innovative activity and specify the conditions under which a semi-public competition can increase welfare. The results suggest that governments promote knowledge about the semi-public competition mechanism but refrain from direct public funding of competitions

Disease Prevention > Flu (April 2009)

In April 2009 a question about the flu was asked in the LISS panel. This question followed the questionnaire on Disease prevention, which was administered in September 2008

Data Archive at the University of Essex, and the latter for distributing the data. We appreciate stimulating

Using U.K. microeconomic data, we analyze the empirical determinants of voluntary annuity market demand. We …nd that annuity market participation increases with …nancial wealth, life expectancy and education and decreases with other pension income and a possible bequest motive for surviving spouses. We then show that these empirically-motivated determinants of annuity market participation have the same, quantitatively important, e¤ects in a life-cycle model of annuity demand, saving and portfolio choice. Moreover, reasonable preference parameters predict annuity demand levels comparable to the data, thereby questioning the conventional wisdom that limited annuity market participation is a puzzle to be explained. JEL Classi…cation: E21, H00. Why are annuities not voluntarily taken up by a larger number of retirees? In the individual consumption/savings-portfolio choice literature, a very important participation puzzle arises from the revealed preference of households not to voluntarily buy annuities at retirement

2011), “The relationship between child health, developmental gaps, and parental education: Evidence from administrative data

Abstract We use administrative German data to examine the role of physical and mental health conditions in explaining developmental gaps between children whose parents have different educational levels. Specifically, we employ sibling fixed effect models to estimate the effect of a comprehensive list of childhood health conditions -diagnosed by government physicians -on the cognitive and verbal ability of pre-school children. We also apply decomposition methods to examine the extent to which gaps in child development can be attributed to child health conditions. While most physical health conditions have small and insignificant effects, mental health conditions, in particular hyperactivity, have a large and significant effect on development. Mental health conditions account for 14% to 36% of the gap in cognitive ability and for 23% to 24% of that in verbal ability. Thus, policies aimed at reducing disparities in child development and socioeconomic inequalities later in life should focus more on the early diagnosis and effective treatment of mental health conditions

A Service of zbw The Role of Childhood Health for the Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital: Evidence from Administrative Data The Role of Childhood Health for the Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital: Evidence from Administrative Dat

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post World Net. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E S IZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. We use unique administrative German data to examine the role of childhood health for the intergenerational transmission of human capital. Specifically, we examine the extent to which a comprehensive list of health conditions -diagnosed by government physicians -can account for developmental gaps between the children of college educated parents and those of less educated parents. In total, health conditions explain 18% of the gap in cognitive ability and 65% of that in language ability, based on estimations with sibling fixed effects. Thus, policies aimed at reducing disparities in child achievement should also focus on improving the health of disadvantaged children. JEL Classification: J13, I20, I1