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Journal of Human Resources 
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ISSN (Print) 0022-166X - ISSN (Online) 1548-8004
Published by University of Wisconsin Press
[11 journals]
[5 followers] Follow Subscription journalISSN (Print) 0022-166X - ISSN (Online) 1548-8004
Published by University of Wisconsin Press
[11 journals]- Peers, Pressure, and Performance at the National Spelling Bee
- Abstract: <p>By Jonathan Smith</p>
There is growing consensus that competitive environments have causal effects on performance, both in the workplace and classroom. Initially, theory and empirics provided guidance on the incentives of tournaments (Lazear and Rosen 1981; Nalebuff and Stiglitz 1983; Bull, Schotter, and Weigelt 1987). A more recent literature has begun to empirically investigate the heterogeneous nature of the response to competition. For example, evidence now suggests substantial gender differences in the way people react to competition (Gneezy, Niederle, and Rustichini 2003; Gneezy and Rustichini 2004; Niederle and Vesterlund 2007; Paserman 2011). But performance in competitive environments may be affected not only by the ... <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_human_resources/v048/48.2.smith.html">Read More</a>
PubDate: 2013-04-28T00:00:00-05:00
- Abstract: <p>By Jonathan Smith</p>
There is growing consensus that competitive environments have causal effects on performance, both in the workplace and classroom. Initially, theory and empirics provided guidance on the incentives of tournaments (Lazear and Rosen 1981; Nalebuff and Stiglitz 1983; Bull, Schotter, and Weigelt 1987). A more recent literature has begun to empirically investigate the heterogeneous nature of the response to competition. For example, evidence now suggests substantial gender differences in the way people react to competition (Gneezy, Niederle, and Rustichini 2003; Gneezy and Rustichini 2004; Niederle and Vesterlund 2007; Paserman 2011). But performance in competitive environments may be affected not only by the ... <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_human_resources/v048/48.2.smith.html">Read More</a>
- The Impact of Repealing Sunday Closing Laws on Educational Attainment
- Abstract: <p>By Dara N. Lee</p>
Economists and policymakers have devoted considerable effort toward examining the determinants of educational attainment. Most of the existing economic literature focuses on determinants within school boundaries, such as class size, peer effects, school inputs, and teacher quality.1 However, adolescents face daily tradeoffs between a variety of time-competing options, which go beyond school to include employment, responsibilities at home, and socializing with friends. In particular, teenagers in the United States have a relatively high degree of autonomy in deciding what to do with their time outside of school, which amounts to almost half of their waking hours (Larson and Verna 1999). The amount of time devoted ... <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_human_resources/v048/48.2.lee.html">Read More</a>
Keywords: Human capital
PubDate: 2013-04-28T00:00:00-05:00
- Abstract: <p>By Dara N. Lee</p>
Economists and policymakers have devoted considerable effort toward examining the determinants of educational attainment. Most of the existing economic literature focuses on determinants within school boundaries, such as class size, peer effects, school inputs, and teacher quality.1 However, adolescents face daily tradeoffs between a variety of time-competing options, which go beyond school to include employment, responsibilities at home, and socializing with friends. In particular, teenagers in the United States have a relatively high degree of autonomy in deciding what to do with their time outside of school, which amounts to almost half of their waking hours (Larson and Verna 1999). The amount of time devoted ... <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_human_resources/v048/48.2.lee.html">Read More</a>
- Targeted Business Incentives and Local Labor Markets
- Abstract: <p>By Matthew Freedman</p>
There remains substantial controversy over the efficacy of local economic development initiatives, and in particular place-based programs that create incentives for businesses to invest in or employ workers from certain regions. Much of the controversy in the United States centers on enterprise zones (EZs), which are aimed at encouraging economic development in blighted cities and neighborhoods. Companies that locate in or hire from EZs are generally eligible for certain regulatory and tax relief. EZ programs have proliferated in the U.S.; over 40 states have adopted such programs, and state and local governments now spend between $20 and $30 billion annually on economic development initiatives (Bartik 2002). With ... <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_human_resources/v048/48.2.freedman.html">Read More</a>
Keywords: Industrial location
PubDate: 2013-04-28T00:00:00-05:00
- Abstract: <p>By Matthew Freedman</p>
There remains substantial controversy over the efficacy of local economic development initiatives, and in particular place-based programs that create incentives for businesses to invest in or employ workers from certain regions. Much of the controversy in the United States centers on enterprise zones (EZs), which are aimed at encouraging economic development in blighted cities and neighborhoods. Companies that locate in or hire from EZs are generally eligible for certain regulatory and tax relief. EZ programs have proliferated in the U.S.; over 40 states have adopted such programs, and state and local governments now spend between $20 and $30 billion annually on economic development initiatives (Bartik 2002). With ... <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_human_resources/v048/48.2.freedman.html">Read More</a>
- Compensated for Life: Sex Work and Disease Risk
- Abstract: <p>By Raj Arunachalam, Manisha Shah</p>
To a greater extent than other epidemics, the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is shaped by individuals' behavioral responses. With an increase in awareness of the risk of contracting disease, individuals substitute away from risky sex toward abstinence (Kremer 1996); toward protected sex (Ahituv, Hotz, and Philipson 1996; Dupas 2011); or away from sex with men toward sex with women (Francis 2008). Viewing risky sex much like other commodities in the market, economists anticipate that demand declines as the expected cost increases (Posner 1992). Hence, economists tend to see behavioral responses to STI prevalence as generating a self-limiting incentive effect of epidemics (Geoffard and Philipson ... <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_human_resources/v048/48.2.arunachalam.html">Read More</a>
Keywords: Prostitutes
PubDate: 2013-04-28T00:00:00-05:00
- Abstract: <p>By Raj Arunachalam, Manisha Shah</p>
To a greater extent than other epidemics, the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is shaped by individuals' behavioral responses. With an increase in awareness of the risk of contracting disease, individuals substitute away from risky sex toward abstinence (Kremer 1996); toward protected sex (Ahituv, Hotz, and Philipson 1996; Dupas 2011); or away from sex with men toward sex with women (Francis 2008). Viewing risky sex much like other commodities in the market, economists anticipate that demand declines as the expected cost increases (Posner 1992). Hence, economists tend to see behavioral responses to STI prevalence as generating a self-limiting incentive effect of epidemics (Geoffard and Philipson ... <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_human_resources/v048/48.2.arunachalam.html">Read More</a>
- Income Shocks and Adolescent Mental Health
- Abstract: <p>By Sarah Baird, Jacobus de Hoop, Berk Özler</p>
Mental health disorders developed during adolescence are not only of immediate intrinsic importance as the leading contributor to the global disease and injury burden among adolescent females (World Health Organization 2004),1 but they also can have negative long-run health consequences through increased risky decision making (Di Clemente et al. 2001; Fishbein et al. 2006) and future mental and physical health problems (Evans et al. 2007; McLoyd et al. 2009).2 Moreover, since youth is the period of life when most people are completing school, establishing friendships and romantic relationships, and seeking jobs, mental disorders during adolescence can have effects that extend into adulthood by reducing the ... <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_human_resources/v048/48.2.baird.html">Read More</a>
Keywords: Teenage girls
PubDate: 2013-04-28T00:00:00-05:00
- Abstract: <p>By Sarah Baird, Jacobus de Hoop, Berk Özler</p>
Mental health disorders developed during adolescence are not only of immediate intrinsic importance as the leading contributor to the global disease and injury burden among adolescent females (World Health Organization 2004),1 but they also can have negative long-run health consequences through increased risky decision making (Di Clemente et al. 2001; Fishbein et al. 2006) and future mental and physical health problems (Evans et al. 2007; McLoyd et al. 2009).2 Moreover, since youth is the period of life when most people are completing school, establishing friendships and romantic relationships, and seeking jobs, mental disorders during adolescence can have effects that extend into adulthood by reducing the ... <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_human_resources/v048/48.2.baird.html">Read More</a>
- The Risk of Divorce and Household Saving Behavior
- Abstract: <p>By Libertad González, Berkay Özcan</p>
This paper aims to test empirically the causal effect of an increase in marital instability on the saving behavior of married individuals. Previous theoretical studies have not been able to unambiguously sign this effect, due to conflicting channels at work. We use the legalization of divorce in Ireland in 1996 as an exogenous shock to the risk of divorce. We propose several comparison groups (unaffected by the law change) that allow us to follow a difference-in-differences approach. Our findings suggest that the legalization of divorce led to a sizeable increase in the propensity to save by married individuals.Divorce rates in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland and EU-15, 1978-2008Marital instability has ... <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_human_resources/v048/48.2.gonzalez.html">Read More</a>
Keywords: Divorce
PubDate: 2013-04-28T00:00:00-05:00
- Abstract: <p>By Libertad González, Berkay Özcan</p>
This paper aims to test empirically the causal effect of an increase in marital instability on the saving behavior of married individuals. Previous theoretical studies have not been able to unambiguously sign this effect, due to conflicting channels at work. We use the legalization of divorce in Ireland in 1996 as an exogenous shock to the risk of divorce. We propose several comparison groups (unaffected by the law change) that allow us to follow a difference-in-differences approach. Our findings suggest that the legalization of divorce led to a sizeable increase in the propensity to save by married individuals.Divorce rates in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland and EU-15, 1978-2008Marital instability has ... <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_human_resources/v048/48.2.gonzalez.html">Read More</a>
- Breaking the Caste Barrier: Intergenerational Mobility in India
- Abstract: <p>By Viktoria Hnatkovska, Amartya Lahiri, Sourabh B. Paul</p>
One of oldest and most enduring social arrangements in India dating back thousands of years is the caste system. The system is an offshoot of a method of organizing society into ordered classes such as priests, warriors, traders, workers, etc. A key characteristic of this system is that caste status is inherited (by birth). Given the traditional assignment of jobs/tasks by castes, the social restrictions imposed by the hereditary nature of the system have been viewed as probably the biggest impediment to social mobility for the poor and downtrodden. The traditional narrative—which finds resonance among politicians, academics and social activists in India to this day—holds that the son of a poor, uneducated cobbler ... <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_human_resources/v048/48.2.hnatkovska.html">Read More</a>
Keywords: Social mobility
PubDate: 2013-04-28T00:00:00-05:00
- Abstract: <p>By Viktoria Hnatkovska, Amartya Lahiri, Sourabh B. Paul</p>
One of oldest and most enduring social arrangements in India dating back thousands of years is the caste system. The system is an offshoot of a method of organizing society into ordered classes such as priests, warriors, traders, workers, etc. A key characteristic of this system is that caste status is inherited (by birth). Given the traditional assignment of jobs/tasks by castes, the social restrictions imposed by the hereditary nature of the system have been viewed as probably the biggest impediment to social mobility for the poor and downtrodden. The traditional narrative—which finds resonance among politicians, academics and social activists in India to this day—holds that the son of a poor, uneducated cobbler ... <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_human_resources/v048/48.2.hnatkovska.html">Read More</a>
- Dating Preferences and Meeting Opportunities in Mate Choice Decisions
- Abstract: <p>By Michèle Belot, Marco Francesconi</p>
A well-established tradition of social science research has documented the strong resemblance of traits and socioeconomic status between husbands and wives. Both men and women tend to choose mates of similar age, race, education, and physical appearance (see, for example, Weiss (1997), Schwartz and Mare (2005), Kurzban and Weeden (2005), Fernandez, Guner, and Knowles (2005), and Choo and Siow (2006) for recent analyses and reviews). But isolating the forces that lie behind this pattern of positive marital sorting is challenging because marriage is an equilibrium outcome arising from a process that entails searching, meeting, and choosing one another.In a frictionless world, positive sorting may arise simply as a ... <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_human_resources/v048/48.2.belot.html">Read More</a>
Keywords: Mate selection
PubDate: 2013-04-28T00:00:00-05:00
- Abstract: <p>By Michèle Belot, Marco Francesconi</p>
A well-established tradition of social science research has documented the strong resemblance of traits and socioeconomic status between husbands and wives. Both men and women tend to choose mates of similar age, race, education, and physical appearance (see, for example, Weiss (1997), Schwartz and Mare (2005), Kurzban and Weeden (2005), Fernandez, Guner, and Knowles (2005), and Choo and Siow (2006) for recent analyses and reviews). But isolating the forces that lie behind this pattern of positive marital sorting is challenging because marriage is an equilibrium outcome arising from a process that entails searching, meeting, and choosing one another.In a frictionless world, positive sorting may arise simply as a ... <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_human_resources/v048/48.2.belot.html">Read More</a>
