The Labor Supply Effects of Disability Insurance Work Disincentives: Evidence from the Automatic Conversion to Retirement Benefits at Full Retirement Age

The Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) program imposes strong work restrictions on beneficiaries; however, the causal effect of the work disincentives on labor supply has been difficult to estimate. We take a new look at this question by exploiting the fact that DI benefits are payable only until full retirement age (FRA), at which point they are converted to retired worker benefits, and the program’s implicit high marginal tax rate on earnings is abruptly relaxed. Using a quasiexperimental research design, we examine whether the DI work disincentives are binding by comparing changes in labor force participation rates before and after the FRA for DI beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. We find a relative increase in labor force participation at FRA for DI beneficiaries of 10.4 percentage points, and argue that this is likely a lower bound estimate on the labor supply disincentive effects of the DI program.

An Analysis of the Effects of Recent Social Security Reforms Using Aggregate and Public-Use Administrative Micro Data

In the last few years the United States Social Security Old Age Benefit system has undergone some of the most significant changes since its inception. We have seen in a short period of time the implementation of the phased increase in the Normal Retirement Age (NRA) with the resulting increase in the penalty for claiming benefits early, the elimination of the Earnings Test for those above the NRA, and the incremental increase in the Delayed Retirement Credit (DRC) for those claiming benefits after the NRA. Since these changes have taken place only recently, there is relatively little research using household level data analyzing the consequences of all these changes. Using aggregate data from the Social Security Administration and a Public Use Micro-Data extract from the Master Beneficiary Record we are able to uncover a number of interesting trends in benefit claiming behavior and level of benefits receipt, which can help us understand how the changes in the system are shaping the retirement benefits claiming behavior of Older Americans. We find significant effects of the removal of the earnings test and the increase in the NRA, but very small effects as a result of the increases in the DRC.Benítez-Silva acknowledges the financial support from Grant Number 5 P01 AG022481-04 from the National Institute on Aging, the MRRC and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology through project number SEJ2005-08783-C04-01, on related projects. Na Yin wants to thank the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College for their support on a related project.Peer reviewe

The changes of media landscape in Malaysia: how citizen journalism poses threats to traditional media

The rise of the Internet and social media have provided alternative ways for people to access information. Communication technologies have given a new platform for ordinary people outside of the journalism profession to become content creators instead of content users. This gives rise to citizen journalism as ordinary people can publish, share, discuss and debate about news and stories in a global sphere with others. While some might view this trend as a positive way of disseminating information, citizen journalism is facing numerous criticism as people are questioning their credibility regarding the news sources and the ethical code of practice that they use when collecting information. This study aims to highlight the changes taking place in the Malaysian media landscape in response to citizen journalism as well as the threats towards mainstream journalism. Data was collected through a qualitative in-depth interview method with five journalists working in the mainstream news organizations in Malaysia. All respondents have vast experience in journalism, both in the traditional newsroom and online news portal settings. The results indicated that changes occurring in the media landscape are due to several reasons namely instant gratification of the news; changed mode of transmission; new styles of news writing; open and freer media environment and change of gatekeeping process. Threats posed by citizen journalism to traditional media are commercial impact, stealing of credits and stiff competition. It was concluded that newsrooms and journalists have to change in order to face the challenges posed by citizen journalism

Research on the Reform of Teaching Management Emergency Mechanism in University Based on Big Data

Sudden major public health events once again test the ability of the whole society to deal with emergencies. Universities are no exception. There are many kinds of management work in Colleges and universities, among which teaching management is the most important one, which is also one of the most affected in this epidemic situation. Therefore, in view of the problems of teaching management in Colleges and universities exposed in the epidemic, combined with the characteristics of independent colleges, starting from the aspects of teaching guarantee mechanism, teaching supervision mechanism, teaching process construction, teaching resources construction and so on, the advantages of big data technology, such as large amount of information, easy to communicate and easy to integrate, are fully used to put forward a set of open-minded, perfect mechanism and advanced technology teaching management emergency response mechanism

A Review of Research on Ecological Economics Based on Bibliometrics

The development of ecological economics is a major strategy for development in the 21st century. Although scholars have been rising more and more interesting for ecological economic over the past 10 years, it is still unclear what is the change will be facing in the future. In order to provide a theoretical basis for the future development of ecological economy, our article analyzes the current research progress of ecological economy on the basis of a bibliometric analysis. The results show that (1) sustainable development of an ecological economy is a hot research topic; (2) there is little cooperation and exchange between institutions and among scholars regarding ecological economics; (3) the number of publications on ecological economics is increasing, with a relatively large number being published in China. Therefore, we must strengthen the cooperation between institutions and among scholars and improve the research content, vision, and methods in this field. This study provides a theoretical basis for the future development of ecological economy

Research progress on ophthalmological administration routes and pharmacokinetics of nerve growth factor

Nerve growth factor(NGF)is one of the most important active protein acting on the nervous system, it is applicated widely in ophthalmology, the administration route includes systemic drug administration and local drug administration. Compared to systemic drug administration, local drug administration is targeted, it is more effective to achieve the necessary concentration in eyes and it reduces the risk of side effects. Local drug administration has been a common treatment method in eye diseases. With the development of administration route, corresponding pharmacokinetic researches have received the concern. This review provides a reference for the study on ophthalmological administration routes and pharmacokinetics of nerve growth factor