Public Transfers and Marital Dissolution

In this paper we analyse determinants of marital dissolution. The focus is on the alleged influence from public transfers, including governmental transfers directed towards divorced families, child allowance, and child support awards. We use a Norwegian panel of 2.800 couples who were married in 1989, together with a broad range of socio-economic variables, including (expected) public and private transfers in case of divorce. The sample is observed over a six-year period, with the purpose of registering marital dissolution. Our findings are consistent with matching models where divorce is explained according to assortative mating hypothesis. We find that the level of transfers has a significantly positive effect on the divorce probability, and that the distribution of transfers in favour of the wife increases the same probability. The fact that internal re-distribution between spouses affects the divorce propensity is consistent with non-unitary family models, but at odds with the predictions from unitary and/or common wealth models.divorce; marital dissolution; empirical modelling

Climate Engineering: Cost benefit and beyond

International efforts on abating climate change, focusing on reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, have thus far proved unsuccessful. This motivates exploration of other strategies such as climate engineering. We modify the Dynamic Integrated model of Climate and the Economy (DICE), and use it in a cost-benefit analysis of climate engineering specifically deposition of sulphur in the stratosphere. The model simulations show that climate engineering passes a cost-benefit test. The cost of postponing climate engineering by 20-30 years is relatively low. Going beyond these standard cost-benefit analyses, climate engineering may still fail. Voters may dislike the idea of climate engineering; they do not like the idea of tampering with nature, and their dislike stands independent of outcomes of cost-benefit analyses.Climate change; climate engineering; cost-benefit analyses; public choice.

Do Collective Actions Clear Common Air? The Effect of International Environmental Protocols on Sulphur Emissions

We consider the effects of voluntary international environmental protocols on emissions with regard to the 1985 Helsinki Protocol and the 1994 Oslo Protocol on the reduction of sulphur oxides. Our analysis utilizes panel data from 30 European countries for the period 1960–2002. We divide these countries into “participants” and “non-participants”, i.e., those that did and those that did not ratify the specific protocol. We use a difference-in-difference estimator that focuses on the difference in emissions before and after signing a specific protocol and compares it with this difference for non-participant countries. Difference-in-difference estimation methods rely on annual data and may induce serial correlations in the variables. We use randomly generated placebo protocols to test the estimated effects. In a panel data regression model, where we include country and year dummies, the effect of the Helsinki agreement in reducing sulphur emissions is around three per cent per year, and the effect of the Oslo agreement is around four per cent per year. Correcting the standard errors for serial correlation in both dependent and independent variables is important and overlooked in the previous empirical literature on the evaluation of international agreements.International agreements; programme evaluation; placebo; serial correlation

Income Effects of Divorce in Families with Dependent Children

Marital splits may affect the economic well-being of families with children significantly. We study the economic effects of divorce in such families in Norway, using administrative information on more than 60,000 individuals. In the typical case, where the mother has custody, the mother (and child) lacks behind before maintenance payments, but after adding these, the outcomes at the median are very similar. However, the median pre-post divorce income reduction is larger for custodial women than for non-custodial men, they have larger risks of an income drop, and larger probabilities of an aggravated position in the income distribution. We also supplement the measures of realized net incomes with an estimate of earnings capabilities. Though not affecting the ranking of the different groups, these calculations indicate that measures based on realized incomes may underrate the well-being of individuals who do not work full-time. The analysis also includes a sensitivity analysis of important parameters in the equivalence scales. An important feature of the Norwegian ”post-divorce package” is that the Government guarantees a minimum level for, and enforces, maintenance payments from the non-custodian to the custodian parent. The system emerges from our analysis as having an equalizing effect on the economic costs of divorce.Marital dissolution; income distribution; income changes; child custody; equivalence scales.

Do voluntary international environmental agreements work?

We consider the effects of international environmental agreements, using the Sofia Protocol on the reduction of nitrogen oxides. Our analysis utilizes panel data from 25 European countries for the period 1980–96. We divide these countries into “participants” and “non-participants”—that is, those that did and those that did not ratify the Sofia Protocol, respectively. Using a difference in difference estimator, we find that signing the treaty has a significant positive impact on emission reduction. The yearly reduction is approximately 2.4 percent greater than it would have been without the Sofia Protocol.international environmental agreements; public goods; evaluation

Performance of the parametric receiving array : effects of misalignment

Author Posting. © Acoustical Society of America, 1987. This article is posted here by permission of Acoustical Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 82 (1987): 1753-1757, doi:10.1121/1.395168.The difference frequency sound field from two concentric but misaligned, axisymmetric, planar transducers in a nondissipative and nondispersive medium is developed as a special case of the general theory [Garrett et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 75, 769–779 (1984)]. Effects of misalignment of pump, source, and hydrophone on the performance of the parametric receiving array are quantified in numerical examples. These include the effect of interaction in the nearfields of both pump and source transducers. The results show that the best performance is obtained for good alignment, high pump frequency, and placement of the hydrophone within or not far from the source nearfield.The Norwegian Research Council for Sciences and Humanities, and STATOIL, Norway

Testing Guilt Aversion

Guilt averse individuals experience a utility loss if they believe they let someone down. In particular, generosity depends on what the donor believes that the recipient expects to receive. In experimental work, several authors have identified a positive correlation between such second-order donor beliefs and generous behavior, as predicted by the guilt aversion hypothesis. However, the correlation could alternatively be due to a “false consensus effect,” i.e., the tendency of people to believe others to think like themselves. In order to test the guilt aversion hypothesis more rigorously, we conduct three separate experiments: a dictator game experiment, a complete information trust game experiment, and a hidden action trust game experiment. In the experiments we inform donors about the beliefs of their respective recipients, while eliciting these beliefs so as to maximize recipient honesty. The correlation between generous behavior and donors’ second-order beliefs is close to zero in all three experiments.guilt aversion; beliefs; generosity; experiments.

The impact of anticipated discussion on cooperation in a social dilemma

We study the impact of anticipated face-to-face discussions among group members after they have made an anonymous contribution to a public good in an experimental setting. We find that the impact of anticipated discussions depends on how we frame the public good game. When framed in non-evaluative language, anticipated ex post discussions lead to a sharp reduction in contributions to the public good. This effect reversed when evaluative language was used to underscore normative expectations. In contrast, there was no framing in the no-discussion baseline version of our game. We offer an explanation that centres on the idea that the announcement of ex post discussions reinforces both normative and predictive expectations.Public Goods; Laboratory; Individual Behavior

Incentives and Creativity in Groups

It has been argued that monetary incentives restrain individual creativity and hamper performance in jobs requiring out of the box thinking. This paper reports from an experiment designed to test if the negative incentive effect is present also when individuals work together to solve such problems. We do not find a negative impact of incentives on group performance. As a comparison we ran the same experiment (the Candle Problem) with and without incentives for individuals as well. Incentives did not reduce performance there either. Comparing individuals with groups we find that team-work facilitates creative problems solving. Individuals appear to be more creative when working together than when working alone