There are persistent differences in self-reported subjective wellbeing across US metropolitan areas, and residents of declining cities appear less happy than others. Yet some people continue to move ...to these areas, and newer residents appear to be as unhappy as longer-term residents. While historical data on happiness are limited, the available facts suggest that cities that are now declining were also unhappy in their more prosperous past. These facts support the view that individuals do not maximize happiness alone but include it in the utility function along with other arguments. People may trade off happiness against other competing objectives.
We study the intergenerational transmission of cognitive and noncognitive abilities using population data and correct for measurement error in abilities using two sets of instruments. The results ...show that previous estimates are biased downward and that once measurement error is corrected for, the correlation in noncognitive ability is close to that of cognitive ability. By considering both parents, intergenerational ability correlations account for a substantial portion of the sibling correlation. Using adoptees, we find that the social impact of maternal abilities is more important than paternal abilities. Children's educational attainment and labor market outcomes are strongly related to parents' cognitive and noncognitive abilities.
The Evolution of Work in the United States Atalay, Enghin; Phongthiengtham, Phai; Sotelo, Sebastian ...
American economic journal. Applied economics,
04/2020, Letnik:
12, Številka:
2
Journal Article
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Using the text from job ads, we introduce a new dataset to describe the evolution of work from 1950 to 2000. We show that the transformation of the US labor market away from routine cognitive and ...manual tasks and toward nonroutine interactive and analytic tasks has been larger than prior research has found, with a substantial fraction of total changes occurring within narrowly defined job titles. We provide narrative and systematic evidence on changes in task content within job titles and on the emergence and disappearance of individual job titles.
We investigate the sources of the important shifts in the volatility of US macroeconomic variables in the postwar period. To this end, we propose the estimation of DSGE models allowing for time ...variation in the volatility of the structural innovations. We apply our estimation strategy to a large-scale model of the business cycle and find that shocks specific to the equilibrium condition of investment account for most of the sharp decline in volatility of the last two decades.
The Value of Health and Longevity Murphy, Kevin M.; Topel, Robert H.
The Journal of political economy,
10/2006, Letnik:
114, Številka:
5
Journal Article
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We develop a framework for valuing improvements in health and apply it to past and prospective reductions in mortality in the United States. We calculate social values of (i) increased longevity over ...the twentieth century, (ii) progress against various diseases after 1970, and (iii) potential future progress against major diseases. Cumulative gains in life expectancy after 1900 were worth over $1.2 million to the representative American in 2000, whereas post‐1970 gains added about $3.2 trillion per year to national wealth, equal to about half of GDP. Potential gains from future health improvements are also large; for example, a 1 percent reduction in cancer mortality would be worth $500 billion.
We document large long-run differences in average house price appreciation across metropolitan areas over the past 50 years, and show they can be explained by an inelastic supply of land in some ...unique locations combined with an increasing number of highincome households nationally. The resulting high house prices and price-to-rent ratios in those "superstar" areas crowd out lower income households. The same forces generate a similar pattern among municipalities within a metropolitan area. These facts suggest that disparate local house price and income trends can be driven by aggregate demand, not just changes in local factors such as productivity or amenities.
Democracy and foreign education Spilimbergo, Antonio
The American economic review,
03/2009, Letnik:
99, Številka:
1
Journal Article
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Despite the large amount of private and public resources spent on foreign education, there is no systematic evidence that foreign-educated individuals foster democracy in their home countries. Using ...a unique panel dataset on foreign students starting in the 1950s, I show that foreign-educated individuals promote democracy in their home country, but only if the foreign education is acquired in democratic countries. The results are robust to several estimation techniques, to different definitions of democracy, and to the inclusion of a variety of control variables, including democracy in trading partners, neighboring countries, level of income, and level and stock of education.
In this paper, we empirically examine whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Public Assistance (PA) program, which targets postdisaster cleanup and infrastructure rehabilitation, affects ...household purchases of flood insurance. Using the fixed-effects model with instrumental variables to address the endogeneity of disaster aid, we find that increased PA grants reduce a county’s flood insurance take-up rates, thereby driving down its total insurance coverage and premiums paid. Our findings provide empirical evidence on the crowding-out effect of public disaster programs, and shed light on their implicit social costs and increased federal financial exposure to natural disasters and climate change.
Prospects for Nuclear Power Davis, Lucas W.
The Journal of economic perspectives,
01/2012, Letnik:
26, Številka:
1
Journal Article
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Nuclear power has long been controversial because of concerns about nuclear accidents, storage of spent fuel, and how the spread of nuclear power might raise risks of the proliferation of nuclear ...weapons. These concerns are real and important. However, emphasizing these concerns implicitly suggests that unless these issues are taken into account, nuclear power would otherwise be cost effective compared to other forms of electricity generation. This implication is unwarranted. Throughout the history of nuclear power, a key challenge has been the high cost of construction for nuclear plants. Construction costs are high enough that it becomes difficult to make an economic argument for nuclear even before incorporating these external factors. This is particularly true in countries like the United States where recent technological advances have dramatically increased the availability of natural gas. The chairman of one of the largest U.S. nuclear companies recently said that his company would not break ground on a new nuclear plant until the price of natural gas was more than double today's level and carbon emissions cost $25 per ton. This comment summarizes the current economics of nuclear power pretty well. Yes, there is a certain confluence of factors that could make nuclear power a viable economic option. Otherwise, a nuclear power renaissance seems unlikely.
An illuminating exploration of the meaning of abstract
art by acclaimed art historian Kirk Varnedoe "What is
abstract art good for? What's the use-for us as individuals, or for
any society-of ...pictures of nothing, of paintings and sculptures or
prints or drawings that do not seem to show anything except
themselves?" In this invigorating account of abstract art since
Jackson Pollock, eminent art historian Kirk Varnedoe, the former
chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern
Art, asks these and other questions as he frankly confronts the
uncertainties we may have about the nonrepresentational art
produced in the past five decades. He makes a compelling argument
for its history and value, much as E. H. Gombrich tackled
representation fifty years ago in Art and Illusion ,
another landmark A. W. Mellon Lectures volume. Realizing that these
lectures might be his final work, Varnedoe conceived of them as a
statement of his faith in modern art and as the culminating example
of his lucidly pragmatic and philosophical approach to art history.
He delivered the lectures, edited and reproduced here with their
illustrations, to overflowing crowds at the National Gallery of Art
in Washington in the spring of 2003, just months before his death.
With brilliance, passion, and humor, Varnedoe addresses the
skeptical attitudes and misunderstandings that we often bring to
our experience of abstract art. Resisting grand generalizations, he
makes a deliberate and scholarly case for abstraction-showing us
that more than just pure looking is necessary to understand the
self-made symbolic language of abstract art. Proceeding decade by
decade, he brings alive the history and biography that inform the
art while also challenging the received wisdom about distinctions
between abstraction and representation, modernism and
postmodernism, and minimalism and pop. The result is a fascinating
and ultimately moving tour through a half century of abstract art,
concluding with an unforgettable description of one of Varnedoe's
favorite works. Please note: All images in this ebook are presented
in black and white and have been reduced in size.
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