The Determinants of Self-Rated Health in the Republic of Ireland - Further Evidence and Future Directions

This paper examines the determinants of self-rated health in the Republic of Ireland using data from the 2001 Quarterly National Household Survey Health Module and the 2005 ESRI Time Usage Survey. Results indicate that self-rated health is a useful proxy for self-reported chronic illness indices. Higher education, having private medical insurance cover and being married is associated with better self-rated health. The strong inverse relationship between age and self-rated health is found to be robust to the inclusion of self-reported morbidity. Caregivers display lower self-rated health, even after controlling for age, marital status and education. We find only minor effects of gender. Understanding further the causal nature of the above associations is a key issue for future research.

Measuring the Relationship between Voter Turnout and Health in Ireland

Health issues are an integral part of the political agenda in Ireland. Yet no study to date has examined the direct impact of health concerns on political outcomes. This study investigates the impact of health, both physical and psychological, and perceptions of the health service on voter turnout in Ireland using the European Social Survey in 2005. The results show that individuals with poor subjective health are significantly less likely to vote in a General Election. Dissatisfaction with the health service is also associated with a lower probability of voting. However these effects interact: those with poor health and who are dissatisfied with the health service are more likely to vote. Psychological well- being has no effect on voter turnout. The health effects identified in this study are large. Therefore, given the PR electoral system in Ireland, small changes in voter turnout could have dramatic consequences for electoral outcomes.voter turnout, self-rated general health, WHO-5

Education Choice under Uncertainty - Implications for Public Policy

We analyse how progressive taxation and education subsidies affect schooling decisions when the returns to education are stochastic. We use the theory of real options to solve the problem of education choice in a dynamic stochastic model. We show that education attainment will be an increasing function of the risk associated with education. Furthermore, this result holds regardless of the degree of risk aversion. We also show that progressive taxes will tend to increase education attainment.Education Choice; Dynamic Optimization, Optimal Stopping, Uncertainty

“…Take up thy Bed, and Vote” Measuring the Relationship between Voting Behaviour and Indicators of Health

Individuals experiencing poor health are less likely to vote at election time, despite being the ones most affected by health policies implemented by the successful party. This paper investigates the relationship between health and voter turnout and political party choice in the 1979, 1987 and 1997 British general elections using the National Child Development Study (NCDS). It finds that poor health is associated with lower turnout, as the perceived costs of voting, such as the physical and mental effort involved, are greater than the perceived benefits, which are derived from the policy implications of the election outcome. In addition, the subset of unhealthy individuals who do vote at election time generally support Labour, as such voters are more likely to utilise the NHS and hence support parties that advocate public provision of health services. Given the low participation rates of the unhealthy, a political party which formulates an attractive policy package aimed at such potential voters could therefore mobilise a previously untapped source of the electorate.Health Status, Voter Turnout, Political Party Choice

Signal Accuracy and Informational Cascades

We extend the Bikhchandani, Hirshleifer and Welch (1992) informational cascade framework to allow for asymmetric signal accuracy. Simulations demonstrate that even small departures from symmetry may lead to non-monotonic effects of signal accuracy on the likelihood of an inefficient cascade.Learning, Herding, Signal Precision

Efficiency Wages and Bargaining

I argue that in contrast to the literature to date efficiency wage and bargaining solutions will typically be independent. If the bargained wage satisfies the efficiency wage constraint efficiency wages are irrelevant. If it does not, typically we have the efficiency wage solution and bargaining is irrelevant.

Handedness and Depression - Evidence from a Large Population Survey

This paper uses a new large population survey from twelve European countries to measure the association between handedness and depression. It is found that that depressive symptoms are significantly higher amongst left- handed men. While 19% of right handed men report experiencing depressive symptoms for at least a two week period, the figure for left handed men is almost 25%. For women the corresponding percentages are 33% and 36% respectively but the difference is not statistically significant. Using the EURO-D depression scale gives equivalent results. These results are consistent with one finding from an existing small scale study.

The Ambiguous Effect of Minimum Wages on Workers and Total Hours

We model a standard competitive labour market where firms choose combinations of workers and hours per worker to produce output. If one assumes that the scale of production has no impact on hours per worker, then the change in the number of workers and hours per worker resulting from a minimum wage are inversely related. We also demonstrate that total hours worked at the firm may rise if there are small fixed costs to hiring workers.Minimum wages, hours, employment

Productivity Growth and Inflation - A Multi-Country Study

Ball and Moffitt (2001) present a theory implying that the gap between productivity and wage aspirations can shift the traditional Phillips Curve. We examine their theory within the OECD. The results show that there is no clear cross country evidence for the theory. Although Ball and Moffitt’s model works well in the U.S., it cannot, in general, be applied to other OECD countries. The time- varying NAIRU can better explain the economic performance for the OECD overall, and the UK in particular, during the late 1990s. In Germany, traditional Phillips Curve still kept its explanatory power during this period.

Big and tall parents do not have more sons

In a 2005 paper Kanezawa proposed a generalisation of the classic Trivers- Willard hypothesis. It was argued that as a result taller and heavier parents should have more sons relative to daughters. Using two British cohort studies, evidence was presented which was partly consistent with the hypothesis. I analyse the relationship between an individual being male and their parents’ height and weight using one of the datasets. No evidence of any such relationship is found.