The abolition of the earnings rule for UK pensioners

The US has legislated to abolish its social security earnings test. A priori it is not possible to predict the effect this will have on work incentives. Using data from the Family Expenditure Survey we show that the abolition of the earnings rule in the UK increased the number of hours worked by men. The lack of any evidence of a reduction in hours may be a consequence of those who previously earned more than the earnings threshold deferring pension receipt at an actuarially favourable rate. This is consistent with there being little evidence of a significant change in the number of deferrals after the earnings rule was abolished.

Trends in charitable giving

The charitable giving of UK households has changed considerably over the past 20 years. In particular, the proportion of households giving to charity fell by 5 percentage points between 1974 and 1993-94. An increase in the average size of donations meant that total voluntary income increased in real terms over the period, but, since 1988, voluntary income has stagnated. The greatest falls in the number of givers are among households in their twenties and thirties. There are clear trends in giving across households by age and income, with younger and poorer households tending to give less. But not only are today’s younger households less likely to give than today’s middle-aged households; they are also less likely to give than today’s middle-aged households did when they were young. These generational trends in giving do not bode well for levels of voluntary income in the future.

What can we learn from retirement expectations data?

This paper analyses retirement expectations and outcomes using the two waves of the UK Retirement Survey, undertaken in 1988-89 and 1994. We argue that responses to questions on expectations are not straightforward to interpret where individuals are asked to report point expectations. As in the studies for the US by Bernheim, the evidence here suggests that individuals tend to report their most likely retirement date. About half of the sample retired when they expected. Men tend to retire earlier than expected on average, but with only two waves of data we cannot reject that this is caused by a common shock over the period. Changes in health and marital status are linked to divergences between expectations and realisations. We extend the analysis to consider ѤonҴ know' responses, which we argue may be a rational response when individuals face greater uncertainty over their future retirement date. We provide evidence to support this hypothesis. Finally, we show that information on expectations can improve the accuracy of models of actual retirement behaviour, most likely because they provide a suitable proxy for unobserved tastes for income and leisure.Retirement behaviour, expectations

Bringing it all back home: alcohol taxation and cross-border shopping

Taxes on alcohol are among the oldest in the UK and are still an important source of tax revenue. In 1992, for example, just prior to the completion of the Single European Market, revenues from excise duties on alcohol totalled over £5 billion, equivalent to 2 per cent on value added tax or 2.5 pence on income tax. Recently, the future of this source of revenue has become uncertain with the relaxation of limits on personal imports of excisable goods by domestic consumers and the increase in cross-border shopping. In this paper, we investigate the effect of increased cross-border shopping on the revenue return to alcohol taxation.

Alcohol taxes, tax revenues and the Single European Market

This paper addresses the issue of whether tax revenue from alcohol lost through cross-border shopping could be recouped by cutting excise duties. This in turn depends on the elasticity of demand for alcohol. We use data from the Family Expenditure Survey 1978-96 to estimate own- and cross-price elasticities of demand for beer, wine and spirits before and after completion of the Single Market. We find no evidence of a significant change in elasticities after the Single Market. The tax rates on beer and wine are currently below their revenue-maximising rates, implying that a cut in the duty rate on beer or wine would lead to a decrease in indirect tax revenue from alcohol. We cannot reject that the current tax rate on spirits is at the revenue-maximising rate, implying that further increases in the duty on spirits are likely to cause indirect tax revenue to fall.

Making Reading so “Useful” it Sticks

In the English language arts classroom, students must not only understand and appreciate the value of reading, writing, and speaking, but they must also learn, employ, and hone these skills for use as contributing members of their current and future societies. Our task, then, is to make learning so “useful” that it sticks-- to build a strong foundation of literacy that may continue to expand as students’ life experiences provide more depth and relevance to their work. For reading, specifically, we must both encourage and support interest, stamina, and understanding of the texts we explore, which is no small feat considering students often want to know, “What’s in it for me?” To answer their driving question, we have to sell the “usefulness” of their learning. When learning is “useful,” students are motivated. And, when students are motivated, learning sticks

Transitioning the Struggling Reader: Evaluating the Effects of Middle-School Direct Instruction on Traditional High-School Learning in the English Classroom

In this qualitative study, I investigate the academic performance of three current ninth-grade students who were tracked throughout middle school by the 1999 McGraw-Hill SRA Corrective Reading Direct Instruction program. To study their respective transitions from middle to high school, I investigate their test performance on the fifth- and eighth-grade reading and writing Virginia Standards of Learning assessments, analyze the quality of student work from sixth through ninth grades by evaluating student products and test documents, and conduct intensive interviews with students and their former and current teachers. By constructing a case-study of each student and conducting a cross-case analysis of their respective transitions from middle school to high school, I evaluate the academic performance of these three students as they transition from a Direct Instruction middle-school program to a traditional, ninth-grade language arts instruction

How should you document a patient's refusal to undergo a necessary intervention?

Your documentation of a patient's refusal to undergo a test or intervention should include: an assessment of the patient's competence to make decisions, a statement indicating a lack of coercion; a description of your discussion with him (or her) regarding the need for the treatment, alternatives to treatment, possible risks of treatment, and potential consequences of refusal; and a summary of the patient's reasons for refusal (strength of recommendation [SOR]: C, based on expert opinion and case series)

In deciding how to deliver public services, bureaucrats, not citizens, often have the loudest voice

Recent years have seen a growing movement for citizens to have a greater voice in how government services are designed and delivered – known as New Public Governance. In new research which examines regional advisory boards in the Department of Energy, James Tanner and Sarah L. Young find that when citizens and bureaucrats had similar political ideologies, citizens’ views had an influence on decision making, but when they disagreed, the agency favored bureaucrats’ opinions over citizens’ recommendations. They argue that while citizen participation matters, it may not be the holistic solution for governments that New Public Governance purports it to be