Health status and retirement decisions for older European couples

In this paper we use data the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) to describe and analyse the dynamics of joint labour force behaviour of older couples for the EU12 countries. We focus on three main issues: the relevance of joint retirement across EU12 countries, the existence of complementarities in leisure and/or assortative matting and the effects of health variables. Concerning the evidence, we first find that a working spouse is more likely to retire the more recently the other spouse has retired; this effect is stronger if the wife is the working spouse. Second, there is evidence of assortative mating and/or complementarities in leisure; the effects of all relevant factors on the retirement decision of one spouse depend strongly on whether the other one is working, unemployed, or retired. Third, besides the standard evidence that poor health increases the retirement probability, we find that the husband's health affects the couple's retirement decisions much more strongly than the wife's health does. Additional asymmetric effects are detected with respect to income related variables.joint retirement decisions ; labour force transitions ; health variables ; asymmetric effects

Health status and retirement decisison for older european couples.

In this paper we use data the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) to describe and analyse the dynamics of joint labour force behaviour of older couples for the EUI2 countries. We focus on three main issues: the relanvance of joint retirement across EUI2 countries, the existence of complementarities in leisure and/or assortative matting and the effects of health variables. Concerning the evidence, we first find that a working spouse is more likely to retire the more recently the other spouse has retired; this effect is stronger if the wife is the working spouse. Second, there is evidence of assortative mating and/or complementarities in leisure; the effects of all relevant factors on the retirement decision of one spouse depend strongly on whether the other one is working, unemployed, or retired. Third, besides the standard evidence that poor health increases the retirement probabiliby, we find that the husband's health affects the couple's retirement decisions much more strongly than the wife's health does. Additional asymmetric effects are detected with respect to income related variables.Joint retirement decisions; Labour force transitions; Health variables; Asymmetric effects;

An Empirical Analysis of the Demand for Physician Services Across the European Union

This paper presents parameter estimates for physician services equations using the European Community Household Panel for 12 countries covering the period 1994-1996. The focus is on two specific points: i) the identification of behavioural similarities and differences in the demand for health across the countries; ii) the variability of the demand for health captured through a joint model for all the countries. We find that there are significant differences across countries, although there are also similarities in the effect of variables such as the health stock, labour situation or family structure. An important fraction of the variability of the demand of health services across countries could be explained from differences in age, income, and the role of General Practitioners (GP) as a gatekeepers in the public health system. We also find some evidence of induced demand effects in both the decision to visit and the number of visits to specialists.count data; demand; physician services; latent class model; two-part model

Award errors and permanent disability benefits in Spain

There is a controversial debate about the effects of permanent disability benefits on labor market behavior. In this paper we estimate equations for deserving and receiving disability benefits to evaluate the award error as the difference in the probability of receiving and deserving using survey data from Spain. Our results indicate that individuals aged between 55 and 59, self-employers or working in an agricultural sector have a probability of receiving a benefit without deserving it significantly higher than the rest of individuals. We also find evidence of gender discrimination since male have a significantly higher probability of receiving a benefit without deserving it. This seems to confirm that disability benefits are being used as an instrument for exiting the labor market for some individuals approaching the early retirement or those who do not have right to retire early. Taking into account that awarding process depends on Social Security Provincial Department, this means that some departments are applying loosely the disability requirements for granting disability benefits.Disability benefits, Award error, Early retirement, Social security

A sequential model for older workers’ labor transitions after a health shock

In this work we study older workers’ (50—64) labor force transitions after a health/disability shock. We find that the probability of keeping working decreases with both age and severity of the shock. Moreover, we find strong interactions between age and severity in the 50—64 age range and none in the 30–49 age range. Regarding demographics we find that being female and married reduce the probability of keeping work. On the contrary, being main breadwinner, education and skill levels increase it. Interestingly, the effect of some demographics changes its sign when we look at transitions from inactivity to work. This is the case of being married or having a working spouse. Undoubtedly, leisure complementarities should play a role in the latter case. Since the data we use contains a very detailed information on disabilities, we are able to evaluate the marginal effect of each type of disability either in the probability of keeping working or in returning back to work. Some of these results may have strong policy implications.Health shocks, disability, labor force transitions, older workers, Spain

Development of the instrumentation of the botafoc breakwater nº 8 caisson

Balearic Port Authority has developed an instrumentation system for the #8 caisson of the Botafoc breakwater that integrates 12 pressure sensors located at three surfaces, two in contact with the sea water and another with the bottom. This design was completed with an inertial system that measures the angular velocities and the accelerations over the three Cartesian axes. Consequently, the system measures actions (pressures) and reactions (movements and accelerations) experimented by the caisson, due to sea waves and/or other service loads. R+D department of the Port Authority and Polytechnic University of Madrid are working on two directions, the development of new theories on vertical breakwater design that go beyond Goda and Sainflou, and on the creation of a real-time critical structure alarm system, based on the instrumentation installed. This alarm system has two main parts: the instrumentation itself that collects data and processes it on real-time (the data processing compares the pressure law suffered by the caisson in every step process with the design critical state of the caisson, in this case the Goda pressure law for a 6.5 m wave), giving a security coefficient that points out the risk level on real-time; and the alarm system consisting of a monitoring panel located in the Port Control Center that shows the risk level and advises in case of an incidental evacuation of this critical portuary installation

Huellas del joven Martínez Ruiz en el Azorín adulto: sobre el sistema ecléctico de la tetralogía crítica (1912-1915)

En este artículo se salvará la aparente distancia que separa al joven José Martínez Ruiz (1873-1967), simpatizante del anarquismo, del Azorín conservador en que se convirtió en su madurez. Para ello se presentará su tetralogía crítica, formada por Lecturas españolas (1912), Clásicos y modernos (1913), Los valores literarios (1914) y Al margen de los clásicos (1915), como el resultado de un anhelo juvenil por construir una historia de la literatura española. Se realizará un cotejo entre estas cuatro obras y el libro La evolución de la crítica, de 1899, con el objetivo de determinar qué influencia tuvieron las diversas escuelas teóricas examinadas en este opúsculo en su crítica literaria de madurez. De este análisis se concluirá que es posible apreciar una continuidad entre las metodologías críticas analizadas en La evolución de la crítica y las practicadas por el Azorín adulto. Asimismo, se propondrá que su labor crítica de madurez se sostiene sobre un sistema amplio y ecléctico heredado de estas teorías con las que se familiarizó en su juventud.This article expects to overcome the apparent distance noticed between the young José Martínez Ruiz (1873-1967), sympathizer of the anarchism, to the conservative author that later became known as Azorín. This way, his critical tetralogy (formed by Lecturas españolas, 1912, Clásicos y modernos, 1913, Los valores literarios, 1914, and Al margen de los clásicos, 1915) will be presented as a result of a young desire of writing a history of the Spanish literature. After this, the influence of his 1899 work La evolución de la crítica in the books mentioned above will be analyzed. In addition, it will be concluded that it is possible to appreciate continuity between the critical methodologies that Martínez Ruiz analyzed in La evolución de la crítica and those which he displayed to write his critical tetralogy. Finally, it will be proposed that his adult critical methodology is based on an eclectic system, which derives from the different theories of literary criticism that he learnt as a young writer

Abundant Z-cyanomethanimine in the interstellar medium: paving the way to the synthesis of adenine

We report the first detection in the interstellar medium of the Z-isomer of cyanomethanimine (HNCHCN), an HCN dimer proposed as precursor of adenine. We identified six transitions of Z-cyanomethanimine, along with five transitions of E-cyanomethanimine, using IRAM 30m observations towards the Galactic Center quiescent molecular cloud G+0.693. The Z-isomer has a column density of (2.0$\pm$0.6)$\times$10$^{14}$ cm$^{-2}$ and an abundance of 1.5$\times$10$^{-9}$. The relative abundance ratio between the isomers is [Z/E]$\sim$6. This value cannot be explained by the two chemical formation routes previously proposed (gas-phase and grain surface), which predicts abundances ratios between 0.9 and 1.5. The observed [Z/E] ratio is in good agreement with thermodynamic equilibrium at the gas kinetic temperature (130$-$210 K). Since isomerization is not possible in the ISM, the two species may be formed at high temperature. New chemical models, including surface chemistry on dust grains and gas-phase reactions, should be explored to explain our findings. Whatever the formation mechanism, the high abundance of Z-HNCHCN shows that precursors of adenine are efficiently formed in the ISM.Comment: Accepted in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letter

Complex organic molecules in the Galactic Centre: the N-bearing family

We present an unbiased spectral line survey toward the Galactic Centre (GC) quiescent giant molecular cloud (QGMC), G+0.693 using the GBT and IRAM 30$\,$ telescopes. Our study highlights an extremely rich organic inventory of abundant amounts of nitrogen (N)-bearing species in a source without signatures of star formation. We report the detection of 17 N-bearing species in this source, of which 8 are complex organic molecules (COMs). A comparison of the derived abundances relative to H$_2$ is made across various galactic and extragalactic environments. We conclude that the unique chemistry in this source is likely to be dominated by low-velocity shocks with X-rays/cosmic rays also playing an important role in the chemistry. Like previous findings obtained for O-bearing molecules, our results for N-bearing species suggest a more efficient hydrogenation of these species on dust grains in G+0.693 than in hot cores in the Galactic disk, as a consequence of the low dust temperatures coupled with energetic processing by X-ray/cosmic ray radiation in the GC.Comment: 24 pages, 23 figures, 7 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA

An empirical analysis of the demand for health using the European Community Household Panel

This paper estimates demand for health equations using three waves of data from the European Community Household Panel. The economic model is a typical specification of Grossman's [1] proposal. The paper focuses on three specific points: i) the existence of two stages in the demand for health decision process (to contact a physician and how often to visit him). ii) the analysis of this double-hurdle process in different scenarios (visits to the general practitioners, the specialists and the dentists). iii) the analysis of differences across countries due to the differences on the coverage of the National Insurance Systems. The results suggest that the contact and frequency decisions of visits to either the general practitioner, the specialist or even the dentist are governed by different stochastic processes. As expected, we find some differences in the behaviour of men and women, mainly in the decisions to visit and the number of visits to specialist. We also show that the behavioural differences across countries are not extremely important, being perhaps income a determinant of the decision to contact and the intensity of the treatment in poor countries