Taxes, Health Insurance and Women's Self-Employment

I examine whether the availability of health coverage through the spouse's health plan influences a married woman's decision to become self-employed. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA86) introduced a tax subsidy for the self-employed to purchase their own health insurance. I test whether this `natural' experiment induced more women without spousal health insurance coverage to select into self-employment. The difference-in-difference estimates based on an analysis of employed women indicate that the incidence of self-employment among women who did not enjoy spousal health bene�ts rose signi�cantly - between 14% and 25% - in the post-TRA86 period, while a multinomial speci�cation based on a sample of both employed and non-employed women suggests that the increase was around 9%

Taxes, Health Insurance and Women’s Self-Employment

I examine whether the availability of health coverage through the spouse’s health plan influences a married woman’s decision to become self-employed. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA86) introduced a tax subsidy for the self-employed to purchase their own health insurance. I test whether this ‘natural’ experiment induced more women without spousal health insurance cov-erage to select into self-employment. The difference-in-difference estimates based on an analysis of employed women indicate that the incidence of self-employment among women who did not enjoy spousal health benefits rose significantly - between 14% and 25% - in the post-TRA86 pe- riod, while a multinomial specification based on a sample of both employed and non-employed women suggests that the increase was around 9%.Health Insurance; Self-Employment

Misspecification and Heterogeneity in Single-Index, Binary Choice Models

We propose a nonparametric approach for estimating single-index, binary-choice models when parametric models such as Probit and Logit are potentially misspecified. The new approach involves two steps: first, we estimate index coefficients using sliced inverse regression without specifying a parametric probability function a priori; second, we estimate the unknown probability function using kernel regression of the binary choice variable on the single index estimated in the first step. The estimated probability functions for different demographic groups indicate that the conventional dummy variable approach cannot fully capture heterogeneous effects across groups. Using both simulated and labor market data, we demonstrate the merits of this new approach in solving model misspecification and heterogeneity problems.Probit; Logit; Sliced Inverse Regression; categorical variables; treatment heterogeneity

The Long-Run Impact of New Zealand's Structural Reform on Local Communities

New Zealand underwent a period of comprehensive market-oriented economic reforms from 1984-93. In this paper, we use data from the 1986, 1991, 1996 and 2001 Censuses to examine the long-run impact that these reforms had on local communities. We analyse the adjustment process in 140 local labour market areas (LMAs) by creating three measures of the impact of structural reform on local communities - an employment-based measure, a population measure and a housing price measure - and examine the persistence of these shocks over time. We find that communities which experienced smaller employment shocks have higher employment rates, higher average incomes and a more skilled workforce in the medium and long-term. Population shocks also have positive, sizeable and persistent effect on average incomes and population in the future. Overall, the initial impacts of the reforms undertaken in New Zealand on local communities appear to still endure more than a decade later.Structural Reform, New Zealand, Communities, Local Labour Markets

The Impact of Crime Victimisation on Individual Well-Being: Evidence from Australia

This paper examines the impact of being a victim of violent or property crime on labour market outcomes and general well-being using longitudinal data from the nationally representative Household Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia (HILDA) survey. We estimate fixed effects regression models that examine changes in outcomes for individuals before/after victimisation relative to changes in outcomes over time for non-victims. Our results highlight considerable heterogeneity in the causal impact of crime victimisation: (I) the impacts of violent crime victimisation are stronger and more wide-ranging than those of property crime victimisation; (2) male victims of violem crime experience poorer employment prospects following victimisation; (3) older victims of violent crime report a deterioration in mental health for two years after the event; (4) women face reduced, persistent prospects of marriage/co-habitation following crime victimization; and (5) there is strong evidence of a negative impact of victimisation on life satisfaction measures but these effects do not persist

Is the internet bad news? The online news era and the market for high-quality news

We review and model the impact of the internet on the production and uptake of highquality news. Our review of trends in the market for news suggests 3 stylized facts: i) particular quality news markets are dominated by merely a few providers, ii) demand for quality news appears stable, but provision of news has become specialized; mainstream news is decoupled from quality news, and iii) the dominant business model of internet news mirrors that of radio, television, and newspapers in that costs of news production are recouped via advertising. We build a stylized model that rationalizes these facts. Our model captures three conflicting effects: (1) economies of scale in the production of news lead to monopolies on particular markets, (2) easy access to information on the internet makes it cheaper to provide high-quality news and to disseminate it via the web, which increases the production of such news; and (3) the existence of bloggers and news aggregators who recycle the stories of news-providers reduces the effective property rights of high-quality news producers, thus forcing the business model of the internet to be advertising-based. For the most likely cases, our model would imply that the internet does not constitute bad news for the provision and uptake of quality news

A Life-Course Perspective on Gender Differences in Cognitive Functioning in India

We examine gender differences in four measures of cognitive function among older individuals in India, using the 2010 pilot wave of the Longitudinal Aging Study of India (LASI) survey. We use a life-course approach and estimate the impact of circumstances in childhood, choices in adulthood and current circumstances on current cognitive functioning. Our objective is to understand the correlates of cognitive functioning in later-life more generally, and of female disadvantage in particular. We observe a female disadvantage across all cognitive measures in the raw data. Our estimates indicate that educational attainment and employment status history can account for the entire female disadvantage in verbal skills, but a sizable and significant gap remains in the other cognitive measures even after controlling for these variables. Notably, our estimates indicate that circumstances in childhood have an impact on later-life cognition. A decomposition analysis reveals that the predicted cognition gap is driven by differences in characteristics between men and women, as well as the asymmetric returns to these characteristics. We conclude that policies aimed at correcting the gender imbalance in educational outcomes may not be sufficient to close the gender gaps in cognition. In turn, this has serious implications for a rapidly aging society like India

The Impact of Crime Victimisation on Individual Well-Being: Evidence from Australia

This paper examines the impact of being a victim of violent or property crime on labour market outcomes and general well-being using longitudinal data from the nationally representative Household Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia (HILDA) survey. We estimate fixed effects regression models that examine changes in outcomes for individuals before/after victimisation relative to changes in outcomes over time for non-victims. Our results highlight considerable heterogeneity in the causal impact of crime victimisation: (I) the impacts of violent crime victimisation are stronger and more wide-ranging than those of property crime victimisation; (2) male victims of violem crime experience poorer employment prospects following victimisation; (3) older victims of violent crime report a deterioration in mental health for two years after the event; (4) women face reduced, persistent prospects of marriage/co-habitation following crime victimization; and (5) there is strong evidence of a negative impact of victimisation on life satisfaction measures but these effects do not persist

A Life-Course Perspective on Gender Differences in Cognitive Functioning in India

We examine gender differences in four measures of cognitive function among older individuals in India, using the 2010 pilot wave of the Longitudinal Aging Study of India (LASI) survey. We use a life-course approach and estimate the impact of circumstances in childhood, choices in adulthood and current circumstances on current cognitive functioning. Our objective is to understand the correlates of cognitive functioning in later-life more generally, and of female disadvantage in particular. We observe a female disadvantage across all cognitive measures in the raw data. Our estimates indicate that educational attainment and employment status history can account for the entire female disadvantage in verbal skills, but a sizable and significant gap remains in the other cognitive measures even after controlling for these variables. Notably, our estimates indicate that circumstances in childhood have an impact on later-life cognition. A decomposition analysis reveals that the predicted cognition gap is driven by differences in characteristics between men and women, as well as the asymmetric returns to these characteristics. We conclude that policies aimed at correcting the gender imbalance in educational outcomes may not be sufficient to close the gender gaps in cognition. In turn, this has serious implications for a rapidly aging society like India

Misspecification and Heterogeneity in Single-Index, Binary Choice Models

We propose a nonparametric approach for estimating single-index, binary-choice models when parametric models such as Probit and Logit are potentially misspecified. The new approach involves two steps: first, we estimate index coefficients using sliced inverse regression without specifying a parametric probability function a priori; second, we estimate the unknown probability function using kernel regression of the binary choice variable on the single index estimated in the first step. The estimated probability functions for different demographic groups indicate that the conventional dummy variable approach cannot fully capture heterogeneous effects across groups. Using both simulated and labor market data, we demonstrate the merits of this new approach in solving model misspecification and heterogeneity problems