11,387 research outputs found
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In sickness and in Health? Dynamics of health and cohabitation in the United Kingdom
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the dynamics of cohabitation and functional impairments among older people. Our research has three main aims. Firstly, we want to analyse the effects of cohabitation on disability. Secondly, we want to study time trends in disability and cohabitation jointly to explore relationships between the two. Thirdly, we examine socioeconomic differences -- as captured by educational attainment -- in disability.
These issues are of great interest from several points of view. Firstly, they address an emerging theoretical debate concerning the effects of cohabitation on health and contribute to a sparse empirical literature on the topic. Secondly, our findings are highly policy relevant. Concerning long-term care for older people, for example, cohabitation is of double importance: firstly, since people who cohabit tend to be healthier, and secondly, since a partner is the typical provider of informal care. In a time where family structures among the old are likely to change (due to changes in life expectancy and divorce rates), our research will be useful for planning purposes. Finally, the model can be used to simulate populations of certain characteristics. Hence, it can be used to derive insurance premiums in order to reduce the problem of selection effects in the market for long-term care insurance.
Using the British Household Panel Survey dataset, we apply panel data and simulation techniques to exploit the longitudinal characteristic of the panel. We estimate the two dependent variables -- cohabitation status and disability -- jointly, and allow for time trends, age effects and unobserved heterogeneity.
We find that there are systematic differences between single and cohabiting people so that a cross sectional analysis would overestimate the causal relationship; nevertheless, cohabitation has a strong and positive effect on health. Furthermore, we find that bereavement of a partner has a significant negative impact on health
Are the dimensions of private information more multiple than expected? Information asymmetries in the market of supplementary private health insurance in England
Our study reexamines standard econometric approaches for the detection of information asymmetries on insurance markets. We claim that evidence based on a standard framework with 2 equations, which uses potential sources of information asymmetries, should stress the importance of heterogeneity in the parameters. We argue that conclusions derived from this methodology can be misleading if the estimated coefficients in such an `unused characteristics' framework are driven by different parts of the population.
We show formally that an individual's expected risk from the perspective of insurance, conditioned on certain characteristics (which are not used for calculating the risk premium), can equal the population's expectation in risk { although such characteristics are both related to risk and insurance probability, which is usually interpreted as an indicator of information asymmetries.
We provide empirical evidence on the existence of information asymmetries in the market for supplementary private health insurance in the UK. Overall, we found evidence for advantageous selection into the private risk pool; ie people with lower health risk tend to insure more. The main drivers of this phenomenon seem to be characteristics such as income and wealth. Nevertheless, we also found parameter heterogeneity to be relevant, leading to possible misinterpretation if the standard `unused characteristics' approach is applied
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Investigating the market potential for customised long term care insurance products
Previous economic research into long-term care (LTC) has mainly been focussed on one issue: the reasons why the LTC insurance market has not been successful. In this contribution, we analyse the prospects for a new type of insurance policy, which offers a top-up on the resources already available to the individual.
We abstract from most problems inherent in LTC insurance markets and derive premium rates for various types of insurance policies. Generally, we find that the top-up option reduces premium rates considerably, to the point where it might be expected that a substantial number of people would take up policies, were they available
Six Peaks Visible in the Redshift Distribution of 46,400 SDSS Quasars Agree with the Preferred Redshifts Predicted by the Decreasing Intrinsic Redshift Model
The redshift distribution of all 46,400 quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky
Survey (SDSS) Quasar Catalog III, Third Data Release, is examined. Six Peaks
that fall within the redshift window below z = 4, are visible. Their positions
agree with the preferred redshift values predicted by the decreasing intrinsic
redshift (DIR) model, even though this model was derived using completely
independent evidence. A power spectrum analysis of the full dataset confirms
the presence of a single, significant power peak at the expected redshift
period. Power peaks with the predicted period are also obtained when the upper
and lower halves of the redshift distribution are examined separately. The
periodicity detected is in linear z, as opposed to log(1+z). Because the peaks
in the SDSS quasar redshift distribution agree well with the preferred
redshifts predicted by the intrinsic redshift relation, we conclude that this
relation, and the peaks in the redshift distribution, likely both have the same
origin, and this may be intrinsic redshifts, or a common selection effect.
However, because of the way the intrinsic redshift relation was determined it
seems unlikely that one selection effect could have been responsible for both.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
Calculations of Hubbard U from first-principles
The Hubbard \emph{U} of the \emph{3d} transition metal series as well as
SrVO, YTiO, Ce and Gd has been estimated using a recently proposed
scheme based on the random-phase approximation. The values obtained are
generally in good accord with the values often used in model calculations but
for some cases the estimated values are somewhat smaller than those used in the
literature. We have also calculated the frequency-dependent \emph{U} for some
of the materials. The strong frequency dependence of \emph{U} in some of the
cases considered in this paper suggests that the static value of \emph{U} may
not be the most appropriate one to use in model calculations. We have also made
comparison with the constrained LDA method and found some discrepancies in a
number of cases. We emphasize that our scheme and the constrained LDA method
theoretically ought to give similar results and the discrepancies may be
attributed to technical difficulties in performing calculations based on
currently implemented constrained LDA schemes.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures; Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Assessing Plastically Dissipated Energy as a Condition for Fatigue Crack Growth
The suitability of using a proposed condition for simulating cyclic crack propagation in a numerical scheme is qualitatively investigated, employing the finite element method. The propagation criterion is based on a condition that relates the plastically dissipated energy to a critical value. In the finite element simulation scheme, the crack is allowed to propagate when the criterion is satisfied, and the crack propagates until the condition is no longer fulfilled. Experimentally, it is well established that a negative load ratio increases the crack propagation rate, whereas a tensile overload tends to decrease the crack propagation rate. By simulating these load conditions, we show that the proposed propagation criterion closely captures these rate changes
A Simple Numerical Method of Cycle Jumps for Cyclically Loaded Structures
A method for accelerated numerical simulations of structures subjected to cyclic loading is investigated. Of particular interest is a class of structures where the structural properties evolve with time. The proposed method is based on conducting detailed finite element analysis for a set of cycles to establish a trend line, extrapolating the trend line spanning many cycles, and use the extrapolated state as initial state for additional FEA simulations. This includes a control function that automatically monitors the length of the cycle jump to ensure a realistic solution. We compare the proposed method to a reference calculation, where all incremental cycles are conducted, and find that the cycle jump solution replicates the true solution
Near- to mid-infrared picosecond optical parametric oscillator based on periodically poled RbTiOAsO4
We describe a Ti:sapphire-pumped picosecond optical parametric oscillator based on periodically poled RbTiOAsO4 that is broadly tunable in the near to mid infrared. A 4.5-mm single-grating crystal at room temperature in combination with pump wavelength tuning provided access to a continuous-tuning range from 3.35 to 5 mu m, and a pump power threshold of 90 mW was measured. Average mid-infrared output powers in excess of 100 mW and total output powers of 400 mW in similar to 1-ps pulses were obtained at 33% extraction efficiency. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.</p
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