Fertility and Child Occupation: Theory and Evidence from Senegal

This paper analyzes household fertility and child occupation decisions in a risky environment. Fertility decisions are made fi?rst, when only the distribution of shocks is known. When shocks are realized and fertility is ?xed, parents adapt by allocating children?s occupations, i.e. school, paid work and domestic chores. Fertility is decreasing with the shock probability and increasing with parental permanent income. Households facing an adverse shock make more use of child labor and send fewer children to school, unless the total number of children is small. These predictions are tested with data from the Senegalese SEHW (2003) following this two-step methodology. A Poisson model estimates the number of children with classical instruments and household-level information on shock distribution, con?rming the theory?s predictions on fertility. A multivariate Tobit model estimates the determinants of children occupations, including the occurrence of shocks and accounting for the endogeneity of fertility. The number of children increases (decreases) the probability of child specialization (multiple activities). Shock-related variables have an adverse e¤ect on schooling.Fertility; education; child labor; shocks

Student and Worker Mobility under University and Government Competition

We provide a normative analysis of endogenous student and worker mobility in the presence of diverging interests between universities and governments. Student mobility generates a university competition effect which induces them to overinvest in education, whereas worker mobility generates a free-rider effect for governments, who are not willing to subsidize the education of agents who will work abroad. At equilibrium, the free-rider effect always dominates the competition effect, resulting in underinvestment in human capital and overinvestment in research. This inefficiency can be corrected if a transnational transfer for mobile students is implemented. With endogenous income taxation, we show that the strength of fiscal competition increases with human capital production. Consequently, supranational policies aimed at promoting teaching quality reduce tax revenues at the expense of research.student mobility, worker mobility, university competition, government competition

Remittances as pure or precautionary investment? Risk, savings and return migration

This paper provides a theory of migrants? decisions to remit and save under uncertainty in connection with future location decisions. We show that the impact of remittances on the risk faced by the migrant is more complex than usually acknowledged. On the one hand, their effect on aggregate risk is non-monotonic. On the other hand, their impact on the geographical location of risk might be counter-intuitive, as remittances increase the migrant?s exposure to risk in the origin country. Also, marginal returns to remittances may be increasing, at least locally, due to the endogeneity of the future location. Interior solutions are therefore not guaranteed, and liquidity constraints faced by migrants may be binding. Finally, undocumented migrants are shown to be more likely to remit than legal migrants.return migration; remittances; risk; investment

Een irenische dialoog met Wim Weren over geweld in Johannes 7:53-8:11

An irenic dialogue with Wim Weren about violence in John 7:53-8:11 This essay engages in a dialogue with Wim Weren's contribution in this volume. It first discusses some hermeneutical perspectives on violence in the pericope on the adulteress woman in John 7:53-8:11. It then discusses the use of Deuteronomy in this passage against the background of Jesus' radical new perspective on violence.HTS Theological Studies/Teologiese Studies Vol. 64 (4) 2008: pp. 1787-179

Abbot, do you happen to know what musical was the first hosted at St. Norbert College?

Abbot Pennings answers a question about the history of musicals on campus, archived from the SNC website

Student and worker mobility under university and government competition

We provide a normative analysis of endogenous student and worker mobility in the presence of diverging interests between universities and governments. Student mobility generates a university competition effect which induces them to overinvest in education, whereas worker mobility generates a free-rider effect for governments, who are not willing to subsidize the education of agents who will work abroad. At equilibrium, the free-rider effect always dominates the competition effect, resulting in underinvestment in human capital and overinvestment in research. This inefficiency can be corrected if a transnational transfer for mobile students is implemented. With endogenous income taxation, we show that the strength of fiscal competition increases with human capital production. Consequently, supranational policies aimed at promoting teaching quality reduce tax revenues at the expense of research

Loans, insurance and failures in the credit market for students

In the education literature, it is generally acknowledged that both credit and insurance for students are rationed. In order to provide a rationale for these observations, we present a model with perfectly competitive banks and risk averse students who have private information on their ability to learn and can decide to default on debt. We show that the combination of ex-post moral hazard and adverse selection produces credit market rationing when default penalties are low. When default penalties increase, the level of student risk aversion proves crucial in determining the market outcome. If risk aversion is low, banks offer non-insuring pooling contracts at equilibrium that may result in overinvestment in education. If student risk aversion is high, high ability students are separated and student loan contracts involve a limited amount of insurance

The Effect of Misinformation on the Delay of Climate Legislation; Economic and Environmental Solutions to Make Environmental Progress in the Absence of Political Support

The scientific community has come to a consensus that climate change is anthropogenic yet the American public is lagging in understanding and acceptance. While the scientific community has tried to spread this information to the public, scientific misinformation propels a narrative that climate science is untrustworthy and inaccurate, and portrays an overrepresented side of climate change deniers to the climate debate. Misinformation is spread by harming scientist\u27s reputations, curating fake science, lobbying, investing in organizations that have prominent and previously trusted names, and most importantly, by spreading doubt about scientific findings. Because misinformation (coupled with lobbying) motivates an anti-environmental policy mindset in our elected officials, bills are challenging to pass. We must work without this legislation by promoting environmental solutions that also have economic benefits that attract the support of investors as well as elected officials. These solutions include the promotion of individual investment in renewable energy, an increase in green employment, and an increase in carbon capture and other technologies that utilize released carbon to make profitable products. These solutions have the potential to strengthen our economy while working towards a green economy