SSI, Labor Supply, and Migration

The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program in the United States creates incentives for potential aged recipients to reduce labor supply prior to becoming eligible, and past research finds evidence of such behavior for older men. There may be a migration response to across-state variation in SSI benefits, which is of interest in its own right and can bias estimates of the effects of SSI benefits on labor supply. We fail to find evidence that older individuals migrate in response to SSI benefits, or that the labor supply disincentive effects of SSI are spurious and instead reflect migration behavior.Supplemental Security Income; Migration; Labor supply

The Effects of Changes in State SSI Supplements on Pre-Retirement Labor Supply

Because the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is means-tested, with both income limits and asset limits, those on the margin of eligibility for the elderly component of the program face incentives to reduce labor supply (or earnings) prior to becoming eligible. Our past research relying on cross-state variation in SSI benefits found evidence consistent with the predicted negative labor supply effects. However, a reliance on cross-state variation necessitated reliance on less-than-ideal control samples. In contrast, this paper uses CPS data covering a 22-year period, which permit identification of the effects of SSI from within-state, time-series variation in SSI benefits, using a better control sample. The evidence points consistently to negative effects of more generous SSI payments on the labor supply of likely SSI participants aged 62-64. The implied elasticities of labor supply with respect to benefits, for those with a high probability of SSI participation, are generally in the range of 0.2 to 0.3, looking at both employment and hours of work.

The Supplemental Security Income Program and Incentives to Claim Social Security Retirement Early: Empirical Evidence from Matched SIPP and Social Security Administrative Files

Features of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program and the social security retirement system interact to create incentives for prospective participants in the aged portion of SSI to withdraw from the labor force and make an early old age insurance (OAI) claim under social security. This paper takes a first close look at this SSI-OAI interaction. The work disincentives posed by SSI rules and the potential interactions between the SSI and social security programs are outlined in a basic theoretical framework. The impact of SSI rules on the financial cost of delaying the initial OAI claim is calculated using earnings records of actual SSI recipients. Regression specifications for early OAI claims that include variables intended to capture the influence of SSI are estimated. Throughout, the analyses are enhanced by access to Social Security Administration records that have been matched to individuals in the Surveys of Income and Program Participation.

A two-qubit Bell inequality for which POVM measurements are relevant

A bipartite Bell inequality is derived which is maximally violated on the two-qubit state space if measurements describable by positive operator valued measure (POVM) elements are allowed rather than restricting the possible measurements to projective ones. In particular, the presented Bell inequality requires POVMs in order to be maximally violated by a maximally entangled two-qubit state. This answers a question raised by N. Gisin.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur

Disentangling conical intersection and coherent molecular dynamics in methyl bromide with attosecond transient absorption spectroscopy

Attosecond probing of core-level electronic transitions provides a sensitive tool for studying valence molecular dynamics with atomic, state, and charge specificity. In this report, we employ attosecond transient absorption spectroscopy to follow the valence dynamics of strong-field initiated processes in methyl bromide. By probing the 3d core-to-valence transition, we resolve the strong field excitation and ensuing fragmentation of the neutral σ* excited states of methyl bromide. The results provide a clear signature of the non-adiabatic passage of the excited state wavepacket through a conical intersection. We additionally observe competing, strong field initiated processes arising in both the ground state and ionized molecule corresponding to vibrational and spin-orbit motion, respectively. The demonstrated ability to resolve simultaneous dynamics with few-femtosecond resolution presents a clear path forward in the implementation of attosecond XUV spectroscopy as a general tool for probing competing and complex molecular phenomena with unmatched temporal resolution

Universal Algorithm for Optimal Estimation of Quantum States from Finite Ensembles

We present a universal algorithm for the optimal quantum state estimation of an arbitrary finite dimensional system. The algorithm specifies a physically realizable positive operator valued measurement (POVM) on a finite number of identically prepared systems. We illustrate the general formalism by applying it to different scenarios of the state estimation of N independent and identically prepared two-level systems (qubits).Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX, minor modifications to the tex

Shared Risk Factors for Mood-, Eating-, and Weight-Related Health Outcomes

Objective: Given the overlap among depressive symptoms, disordered eating, and overweight, identifying shared risk factors for these conditions may inform public health interventions. This study aimed to examine cross-sectional and prospective relationships among these 3 conditions, and identify potential shared eating-related and psychosocial variable risk factors (i.e., body dissatisfaction, dieting, teasing experiences). Method: A population-based sample (n = 1,902) self-reported depressive symptoms, disordered eating (binge eating, extreme weight control behaviors), weight status, and several putative risk factors (body satisfaction, dieting frequency, weight-related teasing) at 5-year intervals spanning early/middle adolescence, middle adolescence/early young adulthood, and early/middle young adulthood. Results: There was moderate overlap among depressive symptoms, disordered eating, and overweight at each time point, and moderate stability in each condition over time. Body dissatisfaction and dieting were the most potent shared risk factors for later depressive symptoms, disordered eating, and overweight among males and females (ps \u3c .05). Conclusions: Depressive symptoms, disordered eating, and overweight share several risk factors, including dieting and body dissatisfaction, which may be effective targets for interventions aiming to simultaneously prevent these 3 conditions

Neumark Operators and Sharp Reconstructions, the finite dimensional case

A commutative POV measure $F$ with real spectrum is characterized by the existence of a PV measure $E$ (the sharp reconstruction of $F$) with real spectrum such that $F$ can be interpreted as a randomization of $E$. This paper focuses on the relationships between this characterization of commutative POV measures and Neumark's extension theorem. In particular, we show that in the finite dimensional case there exists a relation between the Neumark operator corresponding to the extension of $F$ and the sharp reconstruction of $F$. The relevance of this result to the theory of non-ideal quantum measurement and to the definition of unsharpness is analyzed.Comment: 37 page

Adolescents' views of food and eating: Identifying barriers to healthy eating

This is a postprint version of the article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - © 2006 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents Published by Elsevier Ltd.Contemporary Western society has encouraged an obesogenic culture of eating amongst youth. Multiple factors may influence an adolescent's susceptibility to this eating culture, and thus act as a barrier to healthy eating. Given the increasing prevalence of obesity amongst adolescents, the need to reduce these barriers has become a necessity. Twelve focus group discussions of single-sex groups of boys or girls ranging from early to-mid adolescence (N = 73) were employed to identify key perceptions of, and influences upon, healthy eating behaviour. Thematic analysis identified four key factors as barriers to healthy eating. These factors were: physical and psychological reinforcement of eating behaviour; perceptions of food and eating behaviour; perceptions of contradictory food-related social pressures; Q perceptions of the concept of healthy eating itself. Overall, healthy eating as a goal in its own right is notably absent from the data and would appear to be elided by competing pressures to eat unhealthily and to lose weight. This insight should inform the development of future food-related communications to adolescents. (c) 2006 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents.Funding from Safefood: the food safety promotion board is acknowledged