Who is Willing to Let Ethics Guide His Economic Decision-Making? Evidence from Individual Investments in Ethical Funds

Recent economics literature has devoted attention towards motives beyond the typical selfish norm for economic decision-making. Yet, it still remains a puzzle who allows such considerations to govern their behavior. This paper contributes by empirically identifying some features which differentiate individuals who choose to bear the cost of ethically guided economic decision-making from others. Using unique Swedish data on individual pension portfolio choices, we find that education, the choice of an occupation that is committed to taking care of others, actively joining a group working for a common cause, clearly predict the choice of an ethical screen for individual investments.In contrast to previous findings on altruism, income, financial wealth and age do not govern the decision. The results therefore suggest that investing ethically is typically a choice of principles.Socially Responsible Investing; Altruism; Individual Financial Investments; Individual Decision-Making; Ethics and Norms

Are Women Asking for Low Wages? Gender Differences in Wage Bargaining Strategies and Ensuing Bargaining Success

Men and women’s labor market outcomes differ along pay, promotion and competitiveness. This paper contributes by uncovering results in a related unexplored field using unique data on individual wage bargaining. We find striking gender differences. Women, like men, also bargain, but they submit lower wage bids and are offered lower wages than men. The adjusted gender wage gap is lower with posted-wage jobs than with individual bargaining, although less is ascribable to the term associated with discrimination. Both women and men use self-promoting, or competitive bargaining strategies, but women self-promote at lower levels. Employers reward self-promotion but the larger the self-promotion, the larger is the gender gap in bargaining success. Women therefore lack the incentives to self-promote, which helps to explain the gender disparities.Individual Wage Bargaining; Competitiveness; Bargaining strategies; Self-promoting Bargaining Strategies; Gender Wage Gap; and Discrimination.

Risks and benefits of drinking water treatment : focusing on child health and prenatal development

Drinking water is our most important food item and its access is indispensable for a wellfunctioning society. Recent Swedish water-borne outbreaks have demonstrated a system vulnerability and a clear need for improved knowledge on how variations in drinking water quality affects our health. This thesis explores this topic and consists of two large-scale epidemiological studies. The specific objectives were to i) obtain data on drinking water consumption patterns among adults, ii) assess whether changes in drinking water treatment and/or raw water source–aiming to increase pathogen reduction–affected the risk of gastrointestinal illness (GII) and iii–iv) assess if gestational exposure to by-products from drinking water chlorination war associated with the risk of adverse reproductive outcomes. In a longitudinal cohort, we collected repeated information on tap water consumption and GII episodes via a monthly SMS among 5,200 participants during several periods in 2012-2016. The study was conducted in two parts of Sweden, in populations of neighbouring municipalities. In Paper I, we found that 99.8% of adults were consumers of cold tap water, while the consumption of bottled water was low. This lends support to the use of large register-based studies to assess the associations between drinking water exposures and health. In Paper II, we assessed if changes in municipal drinking water production and/or of raw water source affected the risk of GII. These changes encompassed either switching ground water treatment plant, changing from a surface to a ground water treatment plant or switching the surface water treatment plant and raw water source, all resulting in increased pathogen reduction in the drinking water. We observed no differences in the risk of GII among adults, however, among children, a 24% relative risk reduction in GII was observed after switching surface water treatment plant and raw water source. The indications that children are the most sensitive population to drinking water related GII are in line with previous findings. In a nationwide register-based study, we assessed whether gestational exposure to chlorination by-products, trihalomethanes (TTHM), was associated with small for gestational age (SGA), preterm delivery or congenital malformations. We included more than 620,000 children born during 2005–2015 of mothers residing in Swedish localities (≥10 000 inhabitants) and where information on trimester specific TTHM exposure was available. The exposure was categorized into no chlorination, 15 μg TTHM/L and stratified by treatment (hypochlorite and chloramine). In Paper III, we found indications of a dosedependent multivariable-adjusted association of TTHM with risk of SGA in areas using hypochlorite, odds ratio (OR) 1.20 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.08-1.33) when comparing the highest exposed population to the unexposed. In Paper IV, TTHM was dosedependently associated with malformations, but only in areas using chloramine. Comparing the population with highest exposure to the unexposed, ORs of 1.82 (95% CI: 1.07–3.12), 2.06 (95% CI: 1.53–2.78), 1.77 (95% CI: 1.38–2.26) and 1.34 (95% CI: 1.10–1.64) were seen for malformations of the nervous system, urinary system, genitals and limbs, respectively. The findings indicate that chlorination by-products may be associated with several adverse reproductive outcomes. Congenital malformations linked to chlorination by-product from chloramine use has not previously been highlighted and needs further attention

Testing the rationality assumption using a design difference in the TV game show 'Jeopardy'

This paper empirically investigates the rationality assumption commonly applied in economic modeling by exploiting a design difference in the game-show Jeopardy between the US and Sweden. In particular we address the assumption of individuals’ capabilities to process complex mathematical problems to find optimal strategies. The vital difference is that US contestants are given explicit information before they act, while Swedish contestants individually need to calculate the same information. Given a rationality assumption of individuals computing optimally, there should be no difference in the strategies used. However, in contrast to the rational and focal bidding behaviors found in the US, the Swedish players display no optimal behavior. Hence, when facing too complex decisions, individuals abandon optimal strategies.Rationality; Bounded Rationality; Field Experiments

Targetting Risk Lovers? Taxation of Private Pension Savings, Risk Preferences, and Gender

Many countries need to stimulate savings, and especially voluntary pension planning, to meet the demands of an ageing population. This is especially true for the female population as women are expected to live longer while simultaneously having accumulated lower pension wealth. Sweden has been a front-runner in introducing tax-deferred designated pension accounts to stimulate private pension saving, along with self-directed individual public pension accounts. However, a particular feature of these tax-deferred designated pension accounts was that savings were taxed through a presumptive return. In this Article, we show that with heterogeneous risk preferences, this tax policy makes designated pensions unattractive for risk-averse individuals. Using data on self-directed choices and designated pension savings, we empirically confirm our result. In particular, we show that as women are on average more risk averse compared to men, this tax policy had negative effects for women. This Article thus sheds light on the importance of accounting for risk preferences in policymaking addressed towards stimulating adequate pension planning. The Article additionally sheds light on the overall negative consequences of a presumptive tax design such as, e.g., the Dutch “Box-III” tax system

Exposure to drinking water chlorination by-products and fetal growth and prematurity: A nation wide register-based prospective study

Background: Chlorination is globally used to produce of safe drinking water. Chlorination by-products are easily formed, and there are indications that these are associated with adverse reproductive outcomes. Objectives: We conducted a nationwide register-based prospective study to assess whether gestational exposure to the four most common chlorination by-products [total trihalomethanes (TTHMs)] via tap water was associated with risk of small for gestational age (SGA), preterm delivery, and very preterm delivery. To date, this is one of the largest studies assessing drinking water TTHM-associated adverse reproductive outcomes. Methods: We included all singleton births 2005–2015 (live and stillbirths) of mothers residing in Swedish localities having >10,000 inhabitants, ≤2 operating waterworks, adequate information on chlorination treatment, and a sufficient number of routine TTHM measurements in tap water. Individual maternal second and third trimester exposure was obtained by linking TTHM measurements to residential history, categorized into no chlorination, 15μg TTHM/L. Outcomes and covariates were obtained via the linkage to Swedish health and administrative registers. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated by logistic regression using inverse probability weighting. We stratified the analyses by chlorination treatment (chloramine, hypochlorite). Results: Based on approximately 500,000 births, we observed a TTHM dose-dependent association with increased risk of SGA, confined to treatment with hypochlorite, corresponding to a multivariable-adjusted OR=1.20 (95% CI: 1.08, 1.33) comparing drinking water TTHM >15μg to the unexposed. Similar results were obtained when, instead of unexposed, the lowest exposure category (<5μg/L TTHM) was used as reference. No clear associations were observed for preterm delivery and very preterm delivery. Discussion: Chlorination by-products exposure via drinking water was associated with increased risk of SGA in areas with hypochlorite treatment. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP6012This study was funded by the Swedish Research Council Formas (grant 942-2015-425

Assessment of drinking water quality at the tap using fluorescence spectroscopy

Treated drinking water may become contaminated while travelling in the distribution system on the way to consumers. Elevated dissolved organic matter (DOM) at the tap relative to the water leaving the treatment plant is a potential indicator of contamination, and can be measured sensitively, inexpensively and potentially on-line via fluorescence and absorbance spectroscopy. Detecting elevated DOM requires potential contamination events to be distinguished from natural fluctuations in the system, but how much natural variation to expect in a stable distribution system is unknown. In this study, relationships between DOM optical properties, microbial indicator organisms and trace elements were investigated for households connected to a biologically-stable drinking water distribution system. Across the network, humic-like fluorescence intensities showed limited variation (RSD = 3.5-4.4%), with half of measured variation explained by interactions with copper. After accounting for quenching by copper, fluorescence provided a very stable background signal (RSD

Bacterial composition in Swedish raw drinking water reveals three major interacting ubiquitous metacommunities

Background Surface raw water used as a source for drinking water production is a critical resource, sensitive to contamination. We conducted a study on Swedish raw water sources, aiming to identify mutually co-occurring metacommunities of bacteria, and environmental factors driving such patterns. Methods The water sources were different regarding nutrient composition, water quality, and climate characteristics, and displayed various degrees of anthropogenic impact. Water inlet samples were collected at six drinking water treatment plants over 3 years, totaling 230 samples. The bacterial communities of DNA sequenced samples (n = 175), obtained by 16S metabarcoding, were analyzed using a joint model for taxa abundance. Results Two major groups of well-defined metacommunities of microorganisms were identified, in addition to a third, less distinct, and taxonomically more diverse group. These three metacommunities showed various associations to the measured environmental data. Predictions for the well-defined metacommunities revealed differing sets of favored metabolic pathways and life strategies. In one community, taxa with methanogenic metabolism were common, while a second community was dominated by taxa with carbohydrate and lipid-focused metabolism. Conclusion The identification of ubiquitous persistent co-occurring bacterial metacommunities in freshwater habitats could potentially facilitate microbial source tracking analysis of contamination issues in freshwater sources