Incidence of Reported Disability among Men: Accounting for Self Selection

A large volume of research has investigated consequences of physical and health impairments with respect to labor force attachments and earnings of persons with disabilities. Many of these studies are based on data sources in which individual disability status is self-reported. Considerably less attention has been devoted to factors that determine self-reported disability. The contribution of this paper is in its distinction between two aspects of endogenous selection in the transition from self-declared nondisability to disability status. On one hand, measured earnings and income might exert a direct effect on the individual’s propensity to report disability. On the other hand, some individuals possess unmeasured traits that might simultaneously affect their earnings and their propensity to report a disability. Based on samples of individuals from the U.S. Current Population Survey at two points in time, and using individuals who initially do not report a disability, this study looks for an explicit role of earnings per se in the reporting decision. Second, it examines whether transitions to disability between the two periods occur in the presence of correlation between unmeasured factors present in both earnings during the first period and the subsequent decision to report a disability

Twice Chosen: Spouse Matching and Earnings Among Women in First and Second Marriages

This study examines spousal matching for females in second-order marriages. It is based on detailed data from longitudinal Swedish population data registers. We aim to follow women who marry, divorce, and subsequently remarry compared with females who marry and stay married over the course of the study interval. The earnings of both groups are modeled through regression analysis in the year prior to their marriages along with the earnings of each husband. The residuals from the regressions represent unobservables in the process of earnings generation. From the regressions we obtain spouse-to-be pairs of earnings residuals and we measure the correlation of residuals for each marital regime. Overall, we find significant positive correlations for all three of the marital partitions. The correlation tends to be smaller for the first of a sequence of marriages for women who divorce than for women who marry and stay so. For the second of the successive marriages, however, the correlation of the residuals is larger than that for women who marry but once. We also find evidence of “matching” between successive husbands. Women who marry men with unmeasured positive earnings capacities, in the event of divorce, tend to select and match in a similar fashion the second time around.Marital matching; Remarriage; Assortative mating; Earnings

Productivity, Wages, and Marriage: The Case of Major League Baseball

The effect of marriage on productivity and, consequently, wages has been long debated in economics. A primary explanation for the impact of marriage on wages has been through its impact on productivity, however, there has been no direct evidence for this. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap by directly measuring the impact of marriage on productivity using a sample of professional baseball players from 1871 - 2007. Our results show that only lower ability men see an increase in productivity, though this result is sensitive to the empirical specification and weakly significant. In addition, despite the lack of any effect on productivity, high ability married players earn roughly 16 - 20 percent more than their single counterparts. We discuss possible reasons why employers may favor married men

The Pioneer Valley region

The Pioneer Valley is a region with many attributes, one of which is great economic potential. Its mix of city, small-town, and rural flavor, combined with a significantly lower cost of living than in the eastern part of the state, makes it attractive from a quality-of-life perspective. In addition to these attributes, which can serve as a lure for a qualified labor force, new businesses, and job growth, the region has several other elements that can promote successful economic development. Among these are a well developed transportation network and proximity to large East Coast markets, a unique capacity in telecommunications, and a strong presence in higher education. Still, the promise of the region is not reflected in the economic data. Many of the industries comprising its economic base do not have good growth prospects for the national and global markets of the twenty-first century. The task at hand is to reorient the Valley’s economic base from its roots in the industrial revolution toward one that can be expected to thrive in the next century

Berkshire region: technology sector update

Despite a statewide tech turnaround, the region’s high-tech enterprises lag behind the recovery

Questioning the economic benefits of casinos

Skeptics of the economic development case for casinos make a variety of arguments. These include, among others, faulty economic impact methodology, the occurrence of demand substitution, the local effect of employment increases, leakages from the local economy, and the fallacy of the “recapture” argument of resident gamblers who now travel out of state for this activity

The Pioneer Valley economy: seeking to break out of \u27ongoing stagnation\u27

The Pioneer Valley, once a hub of manufacturing, now seeks a dynamic growth sector to get its economy moving more strongly. Education and health care are emerging as part of the answer

The outlook for 2010: a long hard slog ahead

While the outlook for the Massachusetts economy remains uncertain, current and leading economic indexes indicate that the “great recession” has probably come to an end in the state