The effect of social entitlement programs on private transfers: new evidence of crowding out

This paper exploits a natural policy experiment to directly identify the crowding out effects of public transfers on the incidence and level of private transfers. The introduction of a large social security program in Taiwan is used to estimate the effect of an exogenous increase in government transfer payments to the elderly on the private transfer behavior of their adult children. Using an instrumental variables strategy that accounts for the endogeneity of receiving public transfers, the empirical results show strong evidence of crowding out on the extensive margin (the probability of providing a positive transfer) and weaker evidence of crowding out on the intensive margin (the amount of the transfer conditional on it being positive).

The effect of social entitlement programs on private transfers: New evidence of crowding out

This paper exploits a natural policy experiment to directly identify the crowding out effects of public transfers on the incidence and level of private transfers. The introduction of a large social security program in Taiwan is used to estimate the effect of an exogenous increase in government transfer payments to the elderly on the private transfer behavior of their adult children. Using an instrumental variables strategy that accounts for the endogeneity of receiving public transfers, the empirical results show strong evidence of crowding out on the extensive margin (the probability of providing a positive transfer) and weaker evidence of crowding out on the intensive margin (the amount of the transfer conditional on it being positive

Beyond the call of duty: Why customers contribute to firm-hosted commercial online communities

Firm-hosted commercial online communities, in which customers interact to solve each other's service problems, represent a fascinating context to study the motivations of collective action in the form of knowledge contribution to the community. We extend a model of social capital based on Wasko and Faraj (2005) to incorporate and contrast the direct impact of commitment to both the online community and the host firm, as well as reciprocity, on quality and quantity of knowledge contribution. In addition, we examine the moderating influence of three individual attributes that are particularly relevant to the firm-hosted community context: perceived informational value, sportsmanship, and online interaction propensity. We empirically test our framework using self-reported and objective data from 203 members of a firm-hosted technical support community. In addition to several interesting moderating effects, we find that a customer's online interaction propensity, commitment to the community, and the informational value s/he perceives in the community are the strongest drivers of knowledge contribution

Training Effects of Virtual Reality on Reaching Behaviors in Children with Cerebral Palsy: Case Report

Virtual reality (VR) is a computer technology that artificially generates sensory information in a form that people perceive as real-world objects and events. It has been proposed that VR can improve upper-extremity function in children with cerebral palsy (CP) by decreasing physical disabilities, precisely adjusting the difficulty of task and feedback, enhancing motivation and manipulating perceptual information. The purpose of this study was to investigate the training effects of VR on reaching behavior in a child with CP. This case was a 6-year-old boy with spastic quadriplegic CP who had good cooperation and normal cognition. A single-subject A-B-A design was used. The case received 3 baseline, 4 intervention, and 2 follow-up measures. He received a 4-week (3 times a week) individualized VR training using VR-hand function training system and Eyetoy-play system with therapist\u27s manual guidance. The outcome measures included (1) four reaching kinematic parameters (movement time (MT), path, peak velocity (PV), and number of movement units (MU)) in 2 activities (pegboard and mail-delivery) at 3 directions (abduction, adduction, and forward); (2) touching a swing ball; and (3) the fine motor domain of Peabody Development Motor Scale-2nd edition (PDMS2). Visual inspection and 2-standard deviation band method were used to compare the outcome measures between the two adjacent phases. Improvements were found in the kinematic parameters in all directions from baseline to intervention, and the effects were maintained in some directions from intervention to follow-up. Improvement was also shown in the ability to touch a swing ball, but the effect was not maintained from intervention to follow-up. Furthermore, there was an increase (11 points) in the PDMS2 scores from baseline to intervention and an increase (1 point) from intervention to follow-up. This case study demonstrated the potential effect of VR training program to improve the upper-extremity function in children with CP. The training effects might retain for 1 month post intervention