Keeping up with the Joneses and staying ahead of the Smiths: evidence from suicide data

This paper empirically assesses the theory of interpersonal income comparison using a unique data set on suicide deaths in the United States. We treat suicide as a choice variable, conditional on exogenous risk factors, reflecting one's assessment of current and expected future utility. Using this framework we examine whether differences in group-specific suicide rates are systematically related to income dispersion, controlling for socio-demographic characteristics and income level. The results strongly support the notion that individuals consider relative income in addition to absolute income when evaluating their own utility. Importantly, the findings suggest that relative income affects utility in a two-sided manner, meaning that individuals care about the incomes of those above them (the Joneses) and those below them (the Smiths). Our results complement and extend those from studies using subjective survey data or data from controlled experiments.Income distribution

Happiness, unhappiness, and suicide: an empirical assessment

The use of subjective well-being (SWB) data for investigating the nature of individual preferences has increased tremendously in recent years. There has been much debate about the cross-sectional and time series patterns found in these data, particularly with respect to the relationship between SWB and relative status. Part of this debate concerns how well SWB data measures true utility or preferences. In a recent paper, Daly, Wilson, and Johnson (2007) propose using data on suicide as a revealed preference (outcome-based) measure of well-being and find strong evidence that reference-group income negatively affects suicide risk. In this paper, we compare and contrast the empirical patterns of SWB and suicide data. We find that the two have very little in common in aggregate data (time series and cross-sectional), but have a strikingly strong relationship in terms of their determinants in individual-level, multivariate regressions. ; This latter result cross-validates suicide and SWB micro data as useful and complementary indicators of latent utility.Happiness ; Suicide

The cycle of the seasons in selected works of Willa Cather

Willa Cather’s reputation as a coherent symbolist needs no real amplification. Starting with O Pioneers!, her novels are emphatic manifestations of her artistic use of symbolism. Cather\u27s poems and short stories are in some cases earlier evidence of her skill in this area. Moreover, a clearly observable pattern of symbolism, motif-like in its coherency and regularity, manifests itself throughout her works. Cather, and her poetry, short fiction, and novels, exhibits a sensitivity to the seasonal cycle, an attention which exerts a strong influence upon the total meaning of her art

Stratigraphy and depositional environments of the Fox Hills Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Bowman County, North Dakota

The sedimentary structures, trace fossils, and lithology of the Upper Cretaceous Fox Hills Formation in Bowman County, North Dakota, were studied during the summer of 1979 and the spring of 1983. Twenty-three stratigraphic sections were measured and described and lithologic samples were collected for textural and mineralogical analysis, also, the major outcrops of the formation in the Dakotas and Montana were visited. The formation in the study area was previously defined as a 27-mthick sandstone unit, containing three members--ascending, Trail City, Timber Lake, and Colgate--that was conformable with the underlying Pierre and overlying Hell Creek Formations. The Fox Hills, as here defined, is a tabular, upward-coarsening unit, typically 37 m thick, of a newly included 10-m-thick basal silt-clay unit and an overlying unit of muddy, subarkosic to sublithic, very fine to medium sand that represents the formation as previously defined. The conformable Pierre-Fox Hills contact marks the horizon above which: clay changes to silt-clay; mixed or interbedded strata occur; and trace fossils become plentiful. The Hell Creek-Fox Hills contact remains at the base of the lowest substantial carbonaceous bed. The Fox Hills Formation contains three membem, that correspond to three sedimentary structure facies, as follows (from the base): Trail City Member (massive-hummocky facies; 10 m thick); Timber Lake Member (hummocky bedded facies; 19-22 m): and Colgate Member (crossxiii bedded facies; 6-9 m). The Trail City and Timber Lake Members (lower Fox Hills), dominated by hummocky bedding, contain a limited suite of trace fossils; two species of the trace fossil Ophiomorpha are the most abundant. The Colgate Member (upper Fox Hills), separated from the strata below by an erosional surface, contains root molds and leaves at its upper contact with the Hell Creek. The Fox Hills Formation in Bowman County differs from that in the type area in South Dakota in that hummocky bedding is plentiful, the strata are one-third as thick, body fossils are absent, and the Bullhead strata are absent. In a model based on the storm-origin interpretation of hummocky bedding and the occurrence of trace fossils, the Fox Hills Formation represents shallow marine regressional deposits, predominately of storm origin, that were laid down in depths of less than 37 m, on a broad shelf, marginal and seaward of the advancing Hell Creek delta system. Deposition occurred: (1) steadily, from suspension fallout, on the outer shelf (Trail City Member); (2) episodically, in the wake of storms, on the inner shelf (Trail City and Timber Lake Members); and (3) continually by currentdominated shoreline or tidal(?) channel processes (Colgate Member). In contrast to the depositional conditions that existed later to the east in the type area (i.e., deep water and subsidence or sea level rise), deposition on the southwest basin rim was characterized by rapid progradation over a shallow shelf under local tectonic quiescence

Relative status and well-being: evidence from U.S. suicide deaths

This paper empirically assesses the theory of interpersonal income comparison using individual level data on suicide deaths in the United States. We model suicide as a choice variable, conditional on exogenous risk factors, reflecting an individual's assessment of current and expected future utility. Our empirical analysis considers whether suicide risk is systematically related to the income of others, holding own income and other individual factors fixed. We estimate proportional hazards and probit models of the suicide hazard using two separate and independent data sets: (1) the National Longitudinal Mortality Study and (2) the Detailed Mortality Files combined with the 5 percent Public Use Micro Sample of the 1990 decennial census. Results from both data sources show that, controlling for own income and individual characteristics, individual suicide risk rises with reference group income. This result holds for reference groups defined broadly, such as by county, and more narrowly by county and one demographic marker (e.g., age, sex, race). These findings are robust to alternative specifications and cannot be explained by geographic variation in cost of living, access to emergency medical care, mismeasurement of deaths by suicide, or by bias due to endogeneity of own income. Our results confirm findings using self-reported happiness data and are consistent with models of utility featuring "external habit" or "Keeping Up with the Joneses" preferences.Income distribution ; Suicide

The happiness - suicide paradox

Suicide is an important scientific phenomenon. Yet its causes remain poorly understood. This study documents a paradox: the happiest places have the highest suicide rates. The study combines findings from two large and rich individual-level data sets—one on life satisfaction and another on suicide deaths—to establish the paradox in a consistent way across U.S. states. It replicates the finding in data on Western industrialized nations and checks that the paradox is not an artifact of population composition or confounding factors. The study concludes with the conjecture that people may find it particularly painful to be unhappy in a happy place, so that the decision to commit suicide is influenced by relative comparisons.Happiness ; Suicide

THE EFFECTS OF VISUAL IMPAIRMENT ON COMPETITION SWIM PERFORMANCE

Several factors contribute to successful swim performance, but how are they affected by impaired vision? The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between degree of visual impairment and performance variables during the 100m freestyle and backstroke events in Paralympic swimmers and to compare the performances with those of Olympic swimmers. A competition video analysis conducted at the 1996 Paralympic Games showed that performance tends to decrease in all aspects of the race with increasing visual impairment. Continued competition race analyses and delivery of results to the coaches will help in strengthening the competition of Paralympic swimming

ELECTROMYOGRAPHIC INTRA INDIVIDUAL VARIABILITY IN FRONT CRAWL SWIMMING

The purpose of this study was to assess the intra-individual variability of two bilaterally measured EMG signals (deltoideus medialis and rectus abdominis) in front crawl swimming and compare the influence of the normalization technique on several variability measures. Fifteen well-trained adult male competitive swimmers were tested and four additional measures of variability besides mean and standard deviation were calculated. The repeatability of swimming movements was high for both tested muscles and one stroke cycle might be sufficient to determine a swimmers movement pattern. Variance ratio was suggested as a preferred additional measure of variability as it was least susceptible to differences in normalization method

Task 7.1 - Strategic Planning

Energy industry decisions on resources, utilization technologies, and environmental control measures are made in reference to changing patterns of fuel cost and availability, emerging technological choices, externality impacts, and governmental policies, statutes, and regulations. The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) has endeavored to maintain a highly relevant research focus through activities dating back to the benchmark 1980 Low-Rank Coal Study, 1983 defederalization plans, and the 1991 comprehensive white paper on energy policy and technologies. Work was completed in FY94 on an energy and environmental profile for selected East Central European nations and more recently on a series of in-house white papers dealing with key environmental issues including global warming. Task 7.0 continues a limited effort devoted to strategic studies under the base Cooperative Agreement. The objective of this activity is to understand the potentialities, limitations, and status of competing energy technologies in terms of scientific basis, state of development, technical barriers, cost, efficiency, policy treatment, and environmental performance for the purpose of planning and evaluating research activities under the Cooperative Agreement. This work is to provide guidance in planning the broad outline for future research under the Cooperative Agreement in keeping with industry needs and national goals. This is being accomplished through the combination of directed studies, under Activity 1, Technical Assessment, and under Activity 2, Technical Oversight

Mapping for the future: Business intelligence tool to map regional housing stock

The amount of data available and the lack of data integration represent an increasing challenge to effective planning for government agencies. Integration of data from multiple sources has the potential to enable a user to draw valuable insights, which can be used to enhance service targeting and delivery, and to improve program evaluation. In recognition of the need to improve data integration the University of Wollongong and the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) partnered to create an integrated housing stock database for the Illawarra region. The database serves as the backbone for an online and interactive Housing Stock Mapping Dashboard (HSMD). It assembled multilevel granular information (including at the Statistical Area Level 1 (SA1) and Local Government Area (LGA) level) collected from multiple historical programs by multiple agencies. This centralised, integrated data repository can help agencies understand the existing housing stock, and improve access to information to support evidence-based policy. This paper presents a model of how data can be integrated from multiple agencies to provide an online collaboration platform. The platform, HSMD, was designed to demonstrate to government, industry, and the research community the opportunity of data integration and advanced analytics. Potential applications of the HSMD include characterisation of the existing housing stock according to a range of building attributes, for instance the presence of ceiling insulation or rainwater tanks. Comparison of these attributes with energy consumption data can indicate the influence of the attribute, or the impact of a specific intervention. This can help policy makers understand uptake and penetration of previous rebate schemes