Institutions, Social Norms, and Bargaining Power: An Analysis of Individual Leisure Time in Couple Households

We exploit time use data from Denmark and the United States to examine the impact institutions and social norms have on individuals' bargaining power within a household, hypothesizing that the more generous social welfare system and more egalitarian social norms in Denmark will mitigate the impact standard economic power measures have upon couples' time use. Further we posit that leisure time will be more sensitive to power considerations than housework time which may be more influenced by preferences regarding household public goods, to gendered notions of time use, and to censoring. Our results are generally supportive of these hypotheses, with leisure time on non-work days in the US being particularly responsive to economic power. In addition, we find some evidence that institutions matter as women in the US who are more likely to receive welfare benefits enjoy more leisure time than would be suggested by their economic power alone.Time Use, Power, Leisure, Institutions, Norms

Increasing Returns to Education and Progress towards a College Degree

Returns to college have increased, but graduation rates have changed relatively little. Modifying a human capital model of college enrollment to endogenize time-to-graduation, we predict that higher returns to education will both speed graduation and increase enrollment. Some of those new entrants may, however, take longer to graduate. Using the 1989 and 1995 Beginning Postsecondary Studies, we employ a multinomial logit to model the association between individual and family characteristics, and five-year college outcomes: graduation, continued enrollment, and non-enrollment. Between cohort differences arise either because the characteristics of those entering college are different or because the relations between characteristics and outcomes have changed. We utilize a Oaxaca-Blinder style decomposition to distinguish between these two alternatives, attributing differences in characteristics to newly attracted students and differences in the relations between characteristics and outcomes to historically attracted students behaving differently. It is changes in behavior that explain the increased progress we observe.Higher Education, Graduation Rates, Persistence

Reported Progress under the Student Right-to-Know Act: How Reliable is It?

The Student Right-to-Know Act requires colleges to provide institution-specific information on graduation rates for students initially enrolling full-time in the fall term. Not all students enroll in that fashion, especially at two-year institutions. We use data on degree-seeking students from the 1996/2001 Beginning Post-Secondary Survey to identify students for whom statistics are and are not reportable under the Act and to track their progress. Results indicate the published progress rates are substantially higher than the progress rates for the non-reportable populations, whether students enter a two-year or a four-year institution. While progress rates for the two samples are significantly correlated within four-year institutions, they are not within two-year institutions. For those beginning at two-year institutions, the progress rates reported under the Student Right-to-Know Act are indicative of neither their absolute nor their relative (cross-institution) probability of success. Policy makers and prospective students will not make efficient decisions without better information.Efficiency, Resource Allocation, Graduation

The effect of feedback and information on children's pedometer step counts at school

This study examined whether feedback or feedback plus physical activity information could increase the number of pedometer steps taken during 1 school week. One hundred seventy-seven students (mean age 9.124 ± 1.11 years) in three elementary schools participated. Schools were randomly assigned to control (CON), feedback (FB), or feedback plus information (FB+I) groups. Children wore pedometers during school time for 5 consecutive weekdays. The total steps of the groups were recorded at the end of each school day, with students in the FB and FB+I groups free to view their step counts. In addition, the FB+I group received information and ideas about how they could increase their daily steps. The CON group received no step-count feedback or information. Students in the FB+I group achieved significantly more steps per minute (17.17 ± 4.87) than those in the FB (13.77 ± 4.06, p = 0.003) and CON (12.41 ± 3.12, p = 0.0001) groups. Information, as well as step-count feedback, increased elementary students’ school-based physical activity (number of steps) in the short term. A longer intervention period is necessary to assess the sustained impact of this type of approach

Delay in diabetic retinopathy screening increases the rate of detection of referable diabetic retinopathy

Aims - To assess whether there is a relationship between delay in retinopathy screening after diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes and level of retinopathy detected. Methods - Patients were referred from 88 primary care practices to an English National Health Service diabetic eye screening programme. Data for screened patients were extracted from the primary care databases using semi-automated data collection algorithms supplemented by validation processes. The programme uses two-field mydriatic digital photographs graded by a quality assured team. Results - Data were available for 8183 screened patients with diabetes newly diagnosed in 2005, 2006 or 2007. Only 163 with Type 1 diabetes were identified and were insufficient for analysis. Data were available for 8020 with newly diagnosed Type 2 diabetes. Of these, 3569 were screened within 6 months, 2361 between 6 and 11 months, 1058 between 12 and 17 months, 366 between 18 and 23 months, 428 between 24 and 35 months, and 238 at 3 years or more after diagnosis. There were 5416 (67.5%) graded with no retinopathy, 1629 (20.3%) with background retinopathy in one eye, 753 (9.4%) with background retinopathy in both eyes and 222 (2.8%) had referable diabetic retinopathy. There was a significant trend (P = 0.0004) relating time from diagnosis to screening detecting worsening retinopathy. Of those screened within 6 months of diagnosis, 2.3% had referable retinopathy and, 3 years or more after diagnosis, 4.2% had referable retinopathy. Conclusions - The rate of detection of referable diabetic retinopathy is elevated in those who were not screened promptly after diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes

Her Time, His Time, or the Maid's Time: An Analysis of the Demand for Domestic Work

This paper analyzes households' demand for time inputs to domestic services, modeling simultaneously the decision to purchase services in the market and the time spent on weekend and weekday days by each partner on routine household chores. By focusing on cleaning, laundry, and ironing, we reduce the likelihood that preferences matter and increase the overlap with market services. Particular emphasis is placed on estimating the effects of prices, as captured by own and partner wages and the market price for domestic services. We exploit time-diary data for Great Britain and France, relying on cross-country comparisons to generalize our findings. The results indicate that prices strongly influence market purchases, and that maid service is a closer substitute for household time on weekends than weekdays, but is also correlated with 'her' weekday time. More generally, we find that women's wages have a stronger association with the inputs to domestic work than any other price measure.time use, domestic work, gender

Management regime and habitat response influence abundance of regal fritillary (Speyeria idalia) in tallgrass prairie

The \u3e2,570,000-ha Flint Hills ecoregion of Kansas, USA, harbors the largest remaining contiguous tract of tallgrass prairie in North America, a unique system, as the remainder of North America’s tallgrass prairie has succumbed to development and conversion. Consequently, the loss and degradation of tallgrass prairie has reduced populations of many North American prairie-obligate species including the regal fritillary (Speyeria idalia) butterfly. Population abundance and occupied range of regal fritillary have declined \u3e99%, restricting many populations to isolated, remnant patches of tallgrass prairie. Such extensive decline has resulted in consideration of the regal fritillary for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Although it is widely accepted that management practices such as fire, grazing, and haying are necessary to maintain prairie ecosystems, reported responses by regal fritillary to these management regimes have been ambiguous.We tested effects of prescribed fire across short, moderate, and long fire-return intervals as well as grazing and haying management treatments on regal fritillary density. We also tested the relative influence of habitat characteristics created by these management regimes by measuring density of an obligate host plant (Viola spp.) and canopy cover of woody vegetation, grasses, forbs/ferns, bare ground, and litter. We found density was at least 1.6 times greater in sites burned with a moderate fire-return interval vs. sites burned with short and long fire-return intervals. Overall management regardless of fire-return interval did not have an effect on density. Percent cover of grass had the strongest positive association, while percent cover of woody vegetation had the greatest negative effect on density. Our results indicate that patch-burning is a viable and perhaps even ideal management strategy for regal fritillary in tallgrass prairie landscapes. Additionally, these results elucidate the importance of fire, particularly when applied at moderate-return intervals to regal fritillary, and corroborate a growing suite of studies that suggest fire is perhaps not as detrimental to populations of regal fritillary as previously believed

Deliverology in Community Economic Development: Enhancing Results Frameworks and Performance Measurement

  This paper will assess the viability of implementing an alternative delivery model and performance measurement framework – commonly known as ‘deliverology’ – at the level of community economic development. First, a review of relevant literature on traditional economic development delivery models and performance metrics is conducted to determine strengths and weaknesses. Next, a deliverology approach is defined and analyzed to determine whether such a model can address the weaknesses of more traditional approaches. The results indicate that a deliverology approach has many potential advantages for economic development service delivery and addresses many of the weaknesses of current models and frameworks. Since deliverology remains rather new compared to more traditional approaches, further research in terms of a case study in a large urban municipality is recommended as a way to test the applicability of deliverology to community economic development. Keywords: deliverology, performance measurement, results and delivery framework, community economic development, service delivery mode

Bureau of Standards' Analyzed Samples

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