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on Discrete Choice Models |
| By: | Danne, Michael; Mußhoff, Oliver; Schulte, Michael |
| Abstract: | The use of glyphosate plays an important role in farmers' strategic decisions for reducing weed pressure and yield losses. In this paper, the use of glyphosate is analysed as part of a complete agronomic strategy in which the farmer has to choose between the use of a combination of mechanical and chemical weed control. A special aim was to analyse the trade-off in the farmers' preferences between a cultivation strategy with or without glyphosate. The empirical analysis is based on a discrete choice experiment with 328 German farmers. It was found that after the harvest of rapeseed, farmers have a preference for mulch seeding with glyphosate rather than without it. The preference for glyphosate use is affected by the weed pressure and the presence of specific weeds. While the farmers' risk attitude has no influence on the decision to use glyphosate, we observed an increasing preference for its use on larger farms. Furthermore, our results reveal that farmers prefer mechanical weed control in pre-sowing instead of the use of selective herbicides in pre- or post-emergence. This preference increases if weed resistance is an issue on the farm. Potential yield impacts caused by glyphosate use show that yield losses have a higher impact on the farmers' decision than yield gains. We conclude that farmers prefer the use of glyphosate to other alternatives as it is an im-portant part of their agronomic strategy to prevent weed infestation and save work and labour costs, especially on large farms. |
| Keywords: | glyphosate,mulch seeding,rapeseed,agronomic strategy,discrete choice experiment,farmer's preference |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:daredp:1802&r=dcm |
| By: | Jacob Schwartz |
| Abstract: | I propose a method to study the role that a labour market matching technology plays in shaping education and wage patterns using cross-sections of matched employer-employee data. In my model, the observed matching of workers to firms is the outcome of a discrete, two-sided matching process where firms with heterogeneous preference rankings over education sequentially choose workers according to an index correlated with worker preference rankings over firms - the index being a simple and flexible way to model frictions. The distribution of education arises in equilibrium from a pre-match Bayesian game: workers, knowing the distribution of worker and firm types, invest in education prior to the matching process. I show how inference is possible in a procedure combining discrete choice methods with simulation-based inference. I estimate the model using data from Canada's Workplace-Employee Survey for the years 1999-2005. My counterfactual analysis of education and wages shows that changes in the matching technology can lead to economically significant equilibrium changes in both inequality and the probability of investing in higher education, and that these effects are more pronounced when worker and firm attributes are complements in the match surplus function. |
| Date: | 2018–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1803.09020&r=dcm |
| By: | Benson, Rebecca; Glaser, Karen; Corna, Laurie M.; Platts, Loretta G.; Di Gessa, Giorgio; Worts, Diana; Price, Debora; McDonough, Peggy; Sacker, Amanda |
| Abstract: | Background Social and policy changes in the last several decades have increased women’s options for combining paid work with family care. We explored whether specific combinations of work and family care over the lifecourse are associated with variations in women’s later life health. Methods We used sequence analysis to group women in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing according to their work histories and fertility. Using logistic regression, we tested for group differences in later life disability, depressive symptomology and mortality, while controlling for childhood health and socioeconomic position and a range of adult socio-economic circumstances and health behaviours. Results Women who transitioned from family care to either part-time work after a short break from the labour force, or to full-time work, reported lower odds of having a disability compared with the reference group of women with children who were mostly employed full-time throughout. Women who shifted from family care to part-time work after a long career break had lower odds of mortality than the reference group. Depressive symptoms were not associated with women’s work and family care histories. Conclusion Women’s work histories are predictive of their later life disability and mortality. This relationship may be useful in targeting interventions aimed at improving later life health. Further research is necessary to explore the mechanisms linking certain work histories to poorer later life health and to design interventions for those affected. |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2017–09–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:84653&r=dcm |