The Influence of Family and Community Ties on the Demand for Reverse Mortgages

Reverse mortgages are loans against home equity that do not have to be repaid until the borrower moves, sells the home, or dies. The loans generally are available only to older homeowners, usually aged 62 or over. Evidence is found that family and community ties do influence demand for reverse mortgages

Innovative Programs Serving Diverse Populations: The Community College Caregiver Training Initiative

Turnover among homecare workers is alarmingly high, due to difficult working conditions, low pay, few benefits and little opportunity for career advancement. The significance of our Community College Caregiver Training Initiative is reinforced by the recommendation by the Institute of Medicine in its 2008 report, Retooling for an Aging America, for improved education and training and support for professional caregivers

Productive Lives: Paid and Unpaid Activities of Older Americans

The impending retirement of baby-boomers in the U.S. and the ever-increasing life expectancy there and throughout the world have generated interest in how much older citizens contribute to production. Through a review of social science literature and an analysis of Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and other data, this paper explores how older persons in the U.S. allocate their time to different types of productive activities, and identifies the incentives and disincentives that influence this allocation. The paper is written mainly from an economic perspective, but main themes found in sociology and psychology are used to consider obstacles, predisposing factors, and incentives to productive activities. Both paid and unpaid productive activities are analyzed. The main findings are: (1) Older Americans are employed in a wide variety of occupations and industries. (2) Nontraditional employment arrangements such as independent contractors, home-based work, part-time work, and bridge jobs are important to older workers, but opportunities for these activities may be limited. (3) Unpaid volunteer work in organizations such as schools and churches, and informal help given to family and friends, are part of older persons' contribution to society. (4) Economic, psychological, and sociological factors influence the level of productive activities of older persons, and are manifest in the decision-making of both employers and employees. (5) While recent changes in public policy such as modifications to the social security system may be conducive to the continuing labor force participation of workers nearing retirement age, there may be room for more proactive measures

A Stochastic-Dynamic Model of Costly Reversible Technology Adoption

We develop a stochastic-dynamic model of technology adoption that imposes fewer restrictions on behavior than do previous studies of similar decision problems. Like these previous studies, our model is forward-looking and can be used to demonstrate the additional "hurdle rate" that must be met before adoption will take place when the future state of the world is uncertain. Unlike these previous studies, our approach does not impose the untenable assumptions that investment in a new technology is irreversible or that technologies have unlimited useful lifetimes. Rather, we address the more reasonable situation of costly reversibility and limited lifetimes. Our solution method utilizes Bellman's equation and standard dynamic programming techniques. Similar methods have been used previously to examine irreversible investment and adoption problems, but to our knowledge no application to costly reversible adoption has yet to appear in the literature. Our behavioral simulations, calibrated for irrigated cotton farming in California's San Joaquin Valley, demonstrate that the more restrictive approach can produce significant model prediction errors and can overlook important features of the adoption problem when decisions are reversible and technologies eventually become obsolete. Policy implications are discussed.dynamic optimization, irrigation, reversible, technology adoption, water, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Ground Water Quantity and Quality Management: Agricultural Production and Aquifer Salinization over Long Time Scales

An economic model of ground water salinization is developed. Starting from a full, high-quality aquifer, there is an initial extraction period, an intermediate waste disposal period, and a final drainage period. Drainage management is initially source control and reuse, but eventually culminates in evaporation basins and a system steady-state. This process occurs over long time scales but is consistent with historical observation. Efficiency is qualitatively similar to common property though quantitative magnitudes differ substantially. Regulatory pricing instruments are developed to support the efficient allocation. The system is not sustainable in that net returns generally decline through time until the steady-state.common property, dynamic programming, efficiency, ground water, irrigation, salinity, sustainability, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

The Influence of Family and Community Ties on the Demand for Home Equity Conversion Mortgages

Reverse mortgages are loans against home equity that do not have to be repaid until the borrower moves, sells the home, or dies. The loans generally are available only to older homeowners, usually aged 62 or over. This paper explores whether demand for reverse mortgages is influenced by the strength of area’s family and community ties. One type of reverse mortgage is analyzed: the FHA-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM). Several researchers have estimated the potential demand for reverse mortgages. To my knowledge, this is the first study of how actual demand may be determined, and of how it may be related to potential demand. The unit of analysis is a county in one of 26 selected metropolitan areas in the United States. The primary measures of the strength of a county’s family and community ties are those relating to the out-migration of young and old residents. Other variables used to measure family ties include the degree of religious adherence in the county and the percent of its residents that were born in that state. Race and educational achievement are also used in the analysis. Differences in the market development of HECMs across counties are accounted for by including measures of HECM counselors and lenders that are active in each area. Data from a variety of sources are used. The data are analyzed by method of ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares regressions. Fairly strong evidence that family and community ties do influence demand for HECMs is found. A higher incidence of young out-migration, reflecting weak family and community ties of the young, tends to increase demand for reverse mortgages. The opposite is found for old out-migration, which implies that when the old are not attached to their communities, they will be less interested in reverse mortgages. The percent of persons born in the same state as their current residence is found to negatively influence demand. Racial composition, educational achievement, and the extent of market development in an area also are found to influence demand for reverse mortgages

The Fallacy of the Lump of Labor: Adding to the Costs of Ageism

The theory of the lump of labor has helped to perpetuate negative perceptions of older people. The theory rests on the notion that the economy has a fixed number of jobs available and that employment of one group -- in this case older people -- means unemployment of another group. However, among economists, the theory is widely acknowledged to be a fallacy, as it fixates blindly on the short run, and ignores long-run labor market adjustments. This report illustrates just how the lump of labor theory contributes to the total cost of age discrimination in America -- both monetary and nonmonetary

The feasibility and acceptability of using the Mother-Generated Index (MGI) as a Patient Reported Outcome Measure in a randomised controlled trial of maternity care

Background: Using patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) to assess Quality of Life (QoL) is well established, but commonly-used PROM item-sets do not necessarily capture what all respondents consider important. Measuring complex constructs is particularly difficult in randomised controlled trials (RCTs). The Mother-Generated Index (MGI) is a validated antenatal and postnatal QoL instrument in which the variables and scores are completely respondent-driven. This paper reports on the feasibility and acceptability of the MGI in an RCT, and compares the resulting variables and QoL scores with more commonly used instruments. Methods: The single-page MGI was included at the end of a ten page questionnaire pack and posted to the RCT participants at baseline (28-32 weeks' gestation) and follow-up (six weeks postnatal). Feasibility and acceptability were assessed by ease of administration, data entry and completion rates. Variables cited by women were analysed thematically. MGI QoL scores were compared with outcomes from the EQ-5D-3 L; Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale; Satisfaction With Life Scale; and State Trait Anxiety Inventory. Results: Six hundred and seventy eight pregnant women returned the pack at baseline; 668 completed the MGI (98.5 %); 383/400 returns at follow up included a completed MGI (95.7 %). Quantitative data were scanned into SPSS using a standard data scanning system, and were largely error-free; qualitative data were entered manually. The variables recorded by participants on the MGI forms incorporated many of those in the comparison instruments, and other outcomes commonly used in intrapartum trials, but they also revealed a wider range of issues affecting their quality of life. These included financial and work-related worries; moving house; and concerns over family illness and pets. The MGI scores demonstrated low-to-moderate correlation with other tools (all r values p &lt;.01). Conclusions: Without face-to-face explanation and at the end of a long questionnaire, the MGI was feasible to use, and acceptable to RCT participants. It allowed individual participants to include issues that were important to them, but which are not well captured by existing tools. The MGI unites the explanatory power of qualitative research with the comparative power of quantitative designs, is inexpensive to administer, and requires minimal linguistic and conceptual translation. Trial registration: ISRCTN27575146 (date assigned 23 March 2011)</p

Adults with I/DD and Secondary Gastrointestinal Conditions: An Analysis of Healthcare Utilization Patterns and Clinical Characteristics, and Implications for Patient-centered Delivery Innovations

The objective of this research was to create healthcare transformation policies for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) who also present with secondary gastrointestinal (GI) conditions. Key perspectives and analyses used to achieve this research aim were the patient-centered medical home for GI patients (DGBI-PCMH), the biopsychosocial model, and population segmentation

Fighting Child Pornography: A Review of Legal and Technological Developments

In our digitally connected world, the law is arguably behind the technological developments of the Internet age. While this causes many issues for law enforcement, it is of particular concern in the area of child pornography in the United States. With the wide availability of technologies such as digital cameras, peer-to-peer file sharing, strong encryption, Internet anonymizers and cloud computing, the creation and distribution of child pornography has become more widespread. Simultaneously, fighting the growth of this crime has become more difficult. This paper explores the development of both the legal and technological environments surrounding digital child pornography. In doing so, we cover the complications that court decisions have given law enforcement who are trying to investigate and prosecute child pornographers. We then provide a review of the technologies used in this crime and the forensic challenges that cloud computing creates for law enforcement. We note that both legal and technological developments since the 1990s seem to be working to the advantage of users and sellers of child pornography. Before concluding, we provide a discussion and offer observations regarding this subject