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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
| By: | Andrew M. Fischer |
| Abstract: | Several ambiguities in the social exclusion literature – in both the fields of social policy and development studies – fuel the common criticism that the concept is redundant with respect to already existing poverty approaches, particularly more multidimensional and processual approaches, such as relative or capability poverty. In order to resolve these ambiguities and to derive value-added from the concept, social exclusion needs to be reconceptualised in a way that decisively opts for a processual definition, without reference to norms and/or poverty. Accordingly, a working definition of social exclusion is proposed as structural, institutional or agentive processes of repulsion or obstruction. This definition gives attention to processes occurring vertically throughout social hierarchies and opens up applications of the social exclusion approach to analyses of stratification, segregation and subordination in development studies, especially within contexts of high or rising inequality. Three strengths and applications include situations where exclusions lead to stratifying or impoverishing trajectories without any short-term poverty outcomes; where upward mobility of poor people is hindered by exclusions occurring among the nonpoor; and situations of inequality-induced conflict. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bwp:bwppap:14611&r=hme |
| By: | Juan Carlos Cuestas (Department of Economics, The University of Sheffield); Bruce Philp (Division of Economics, Nottingham Trent University) |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to our understanding of the determinants and dynamics of a Marxian surplus-value rate using quarterly UK data, 1955-2010, and the Johansen (1988, 1991) cointegration and vector error correction model (VECM). A conceptual model is introduced to define surplus-value and its component parts, before elaborating on theoretical issues which are important in estimating the rate. In the empirical analysis we seek to explain distributive conflict, paying attention to three forces which are traditionally seen as drivers of power in distributional struggle: (i) political party; (ii) the size of the “reserve army” of the unemployed; (iii) working class militancy. Our results suggest a positive impact of unemployment on the rate of surplus-value, and that falling working class militancy tends to raise the rate. Political party also affects the rate of surplus-value with a negative impact on the rate emanating from movement to left-wing government. This analysis demonstrates the ongoing relevance of Marxian economics in providing an alternative, robust and significant explanation of distribution in the post-war UK economy. |
| Keywords: | Educational loan, Risk aversiob |
| JEL: | D33 B51 C22 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:shf:wpaper:2011012&r=hme |
| By: | Fernando Martins |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the main findings of a survey conducted on a sample of Portuguese firms. The main aim was to identify some relevant characteristics about the dynamics of prices and wages in Portugal. The most important conclusions are: i) changes to wages are more synchronized than changes to prices; ii) most wages are defined using inflation as a yardstick, even though there are no formal rules; iii) the wages of most workers are defined in terms of sector-related collective agreements; iv) a considerable proportion of workers receive wages above those been agreed under the collective agreement; v) firms make frequent use of other mechanisms to cut payroll costs as a way of overcoming the restrictions imposed by downward nominal wage rigidity. |
| JEL: | D21 E30 J31 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ptu:wpaper:w201109&r=hme |
| By: | João Amador |
| Abstract: | This paper compares the energy content in manufacturing exports in a set of 30 advanced and emerging economies and examines its evolution from 1995 to 2005. The paper combines information from the OECD input-output matrices and international trade data in 18 manufacturing sectors. Energy inputs are defined as those from sectors “coke, refined petroleum products and nuclear fuel” and “electricity, gas and water supply”. In addition, the value of energy inputs that is required for the production of one unit of output in a given manufacturing sector is defined as the corresponding sector's coefficient in the inverse Leontief matrix. Finally, these coefficients are weighted according to sectors' shares in countries' total manufacturing exports. The resulting indicator for the energy content of manufacturing exports is compared across countries in periods where comparable input-output matrices exist. The paper also suggests a methodology to disentangle the effects attributable to the structure of manufacturing exports and sectoral energy efficiency, presenting results according to technological categories. The paper concludes that Brazil, India and, mostly, China, present a high energy content in manufacturing exports, which has increased from 1995 to 2005. Conversely, many advanced economies, notably in Europe and North America, which showed energy contents below the world average in 1995, reinforced their position as relatively low energy intensive economies. The contribution of trade specialization and energy efficiency effects to explain differences in the energy content of exports draws attention to the situation of China. This country increased its relative energy usage in the exports of all technological categories of goods. Nevertheless, this effect was reinforced by the stronger export specialization in high-tech products and a comparatively lower specialization in medium-high-tech products. |
| JEL: | F10 F14 Q40 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ptu:wpaper:w201110&r=hme |
| By: | Anna M. Carabelli; Mario A. Cedrini (SEMEQ Department - Faculty of Economics - University of Eastern Piedmont) |
| Abstract: | In 1987, Greenwald and Stiglitz accused Keynes’s summary of the General Theory in chapter 18 of relying upon “neoclassical and Marshallian tools”. A number of contributions have on the contrary emphasized the methodological importance of this chapter, which this paper revisits in the light of A Treatise on Probability. It thereby shows that the notions of cause and dependence used to discuss the relationships between independent and dependent variables of the General Theory are related to the concept of “independence for knowledge”, which concerns logical connections between arguments rather than material connections between events. We demonstrate that such logical connections established in chapter 18 are rediscussed in chapters 19-21, where Keynes allows for probable repercussions between the factors and removes the simplifying assumptions previously introduced. After stressing the methodological continuity this method provides with the analysis of credit cycles in A Treatise on Money, we argue that chapter 18 is an indispensable tool to decode the internal text structure of the General Theory. We thus characterize the latter as a vademecum to the complex economic world, the author providing an analytical method allowing – and requiring – the readers to emulate his efforts to grasp the complexity and interdependence of the economic material. |
| Keywords: | John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory, complexity, economic methodology |
| JEL: | B31 B41 A10 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upo:upopwp:128&r=hme |
| By: | Uwaifo Oyelere, Ruth (Georgia Tech); Oyolola, Maharouf (University of Vermont) |
| Abstract: | There is evidence that women are more likely to live in poverty than men. Given the fact that the poor are more likely to use welfare, it becomes useful to consider welfare usage among women. A-priori welfare programs are set up in such a way that welfare usage should be based primarily on economic needs and health concerns. However, it is possible that an individual’s experiences could affect their perception and preferences for using government assistance. In this scenario, differences in welfare usage will exist for individuals with similar characteristics but different experiences. We explore this possibility among women and investigate if race/ethnicity and birthplace still have a role to play in the decision to use welfare even after controlling for income, health and other demographic factors like employment. We find that race does not matter for welfare usage among comparable women. In addition, we do not find any significant differences in welfare usage among women based on birthplace – suggesting that comparable naturalized and native born women share similar preference for welfare. The only exception is women born in U.S territories. Our results suggest that among comparable women, women born in U.S territories seem to be more inclined to welfare usage in comparison to U.S born White women. |
| Keywords: | birth place, ethnicity, race, immigrants, women, welfare usage, black, welfare, immigrant status |
| JEL: | J2 J10 J24 J38 I21 O12 O15 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5668&r=hme |
| By: | Aparicio Fenoll, Ainhoa (Collegio Carlo Alberto) |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the impact of product market competition on job instability as proxied by the use of fixed-term labor contracts. Using both worker data from the Spanish Labor Force Survey and firm data from the Spanish Business Strategies Survey, I show that job instability rises with competition. In particular, a one standard deviation increase in competition in an economic sector decreases the probability that a fixed-term worker gets an open-ended contract within that sector in a given year by more than 30%. The effect is identified by means of exogenous shifts in competition brought about by changes in legislation. |
| Keywords: | fixed-term employment, product market competition, labor contract |
| JEL: | J24 M51 C41 C33 C35 J6 L1 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5669&r=hme |
| By: | Pfeifer, Christian (Leuphana University Lüneburg) |
| Abstract: | I use a question about works council relations from the 2006 wave of the IAB Establishment panel to analyze the heterogeneous effects of works councils on productivity, wages, and profits. The results indicate that the effects differ significantly between works council relationship types in a systematic pattern. The overall findings are in line with productivity-enhancing and rent-sharing functions of works councils. |
| Keywords: | industrial relations, firm performance, codetermination, works councils |
| JEL: | J53 M54 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5672&r=hme |
| By: | Zimmermann, Laura (University of Michigan) |
| Abstract: | Detecting gender discrimination among children in the intra-household allocation of goods from household surveys has often proven to be difficult. This paper uses some of the commonly used techniques in this field to analyze education expenditures in India. Contrary to most previous research, I find evidence of discrimination against girls. Results at the all-India level are robust to the statistical method and the education expenditure measure, while they are more sensitive to changes in the analysis at the state level. In general, girls experience gender discrimination especially from age 10 onwards, with almost universal disadvantage in the amount of education expenditures in the group of 15-19 year olds. |
| Keywords: | gender discrimination, India, intra-household allocation, education expenditures |
| JEL: | J16 O15 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5687&r=hme |
| By: | Cho, Yoonyoung (World Bank); Newhouse, David (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how different types of workers in 17 middle-income countries were affected by labor market retrenchment during the great recession. Impacts on different types of workers varied by country and were only weakly related to the severity of the shock. Among active workers, youth experienced by far the largest adverse impacts on employment, unemployment, and wage employment, particularly relative to older adults. The percentage employment reductions, for example, were greatest for youth in each sector of the economy, as firms reacted to the shock by substituting away from inexperienced workers. Employment rates, as a share of the population, also plummeted for men. Larger drops in male employment were primarily attributable to men's higher initial rate of employment, although men's concentration in the hard-hit industrial sector also played an important role. Within each sector, percentage employment declines were similar for men and women. Added worker effects among women were mild, even among less-educated workers. Differences in labor market outcomes across education groups and urban or rural residence tended to be smaller. These findings bolster the case for targeted support to displaced youth and wage employees. Programs targeted to female and unskilled workers should be undertaken with appropriate caution or empirical support from timely data, as they may not benefit the majority of affected workers. |
| Keywords: | labor markets, emerging economies, economic shocks |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J21 O15 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5681&r=hme |
| By: | Kunze, Astrid (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Troske, Kenneth R. (University of Kentucky) |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether women search longer for a job than men and whether these differences change over the life cycle. Our empirical analysis exploits German register data on highly attached displaced workers. We apply duration models to analyze gender differences in job search taking into account observed and unobserved worker heterogeneity and censoring. Simple survival functions show that displaced women take longer to find a new job than comparable men. Disaggregation by age groups reveals that these differences are driven by differential behavior of prime age women. There is no significant difference in job search duration among the very young and older workers. These differential outcomes remain even after we control for differences in human capital, and when time dependence and unobserved heterogeneity are incorporated into the model. |
| Keywords: | Gender differences; job search; displaced workers; wage differences. discrimination. |
| JEL: | J31 J63 J64 J71 |
| Date: | 2010–01–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2010_002&r=hme |
| By: | Jürgen-Peter Kretschmer (University of Marburg) |
| Abstract: | In competition law, the problem of the optimal design of institutional and procedural rules concerns assessment processes of the pro- and anticompetitiveness of business behaviors. This is well recognized in the discussion about the relative merits of different assessment principles such as the rule of reason and per se rules. Supported by modern industrial organization research, which applies a more differentiated analysis to the welfare effects of different business behaviors, a full-scale case-by-case assessment seems to be the prevailing idea. Even though the discussion mainly focuses on extreme solutions, different theoretical approaches do exist, which provide important determinants and allow for a sound analysis of appropriate legal directives and investigation procedures from a ‘Law and Economics’ perspective. Integrating and examining them in light of various constellations results in differentiated solutions of optimally structured assessment processes. |
| Keywords: | Law Enforcement, Competition Law, Competition Policy, Antitrust Law, Antitrust Policy, Decision-Making |
| JEL: | K21 K40 L40 L49 D81 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:201114&r=hme |
| By: | Jürgen-Peter Kretschmer (University of Marburg) |
| Abstract: | The US Supreme Court’s overruling of the pre-existing per se illegality of resale price maintenance and the recommendation of a rule of reason approach in the Leegin decision (2007), raise the question whether other jurisdictions should follow this approach and what future assessments of resale price maintenance cases should look like. Policy decisions have to rely on the importance of various theories concerning welfare effects of resale price maintenance practises, which must be supported by empirical studies. Unfortunately, not much attention has been paid to this topic by researchers. Nevertheless, the few existing empirical studies allow for the analysis and discussion of existing assessment proposals. Furthermore, the paper derives a new recommended assessment procedure for resale price maintenance from a special point of view by combining empirical results with the decision-theoretic approach of optimal sequential investigation rules. |
| Keywords: | Antitrust Law, Law Enforcement, Resale Price Maintenance, Decision-Making |
| JEL: | K21 K40 L42 D81 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:201116&r=hme |
| By: | Camilo Mondragón-Vélez; Ximena Peña; Daniel Wills |
| Abstract: | Informality is at the center of the economic debate in Colombia, fueled by the high level prevalent in the country and its substantial increase during the 1990s. We study the effect of labor market rigidities, namely the increase in non-wage costs and the minimum wage on the size of the informal sector, the transition into and out of informality, and wages. Our results indicate that rises in non-wage costs and the minimum wage, increase the probability of transition into informality as well as the size of the informal sector. The business cycle has second order effects. The analysis across education groups points towards strong exclusion motives for low skilled informal workers, mainly driven by labor demand adjustments in response to increasing hiring costs; and argues somehow in favor of exit motives for workers with higher educational attainment. In addition, we document facts regarding the evolution and characteristics of the informal sector across alternative definitions of informality. |
| Date: | 2011–02–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000425:008355&r=hme |
| By: | Ozbugday, F.C. (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | The present study examines the impact of several industry characteristics on the propensity to collude using a dataset on the existence of collusion across Dutch industries during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The results of the Probit model with sample selection indicate that our sample of Dutch concerted practices is non-random in the sense that it only consists of anti-competitive agreements that were subject of an antitrust immunity behavior. Our bivariate probit model with sample selection indicates that concerted practices are less likely to be seen in service industries relative to manufacturing industries. The results also show that it is more likely that firms engaged in concerted practices in unconcentrated industries. Furthermore, we could not find a non-linear relationship between concentration and the presence of collusion. There is also strong evidence from all the regressions that concerted practices are less likely in industries where entry is more possible. Interestingly, our estimation results indicate that there is a positive correlation between cartel prevalence and import penetration, which implies that import competition did not discipline firm behavior and foreign importers joined the cartel paradise in the Netherlands. As to the role of measures of asymmetry on concerted practice prevalence, the association between patenting activity and propensity to engage in collusion is ambiguous in the current setting, while advertising intensity, as the second measure of asymmetry, is associated with increased likelihood of collusion. Contrary to the previous empirical findings, market growth has been found to have a negative effect on the probability of a concerted practice in an industry. Furthermore, our proposition that growing demand might attract new entrants, which, in turn, hampers collusion, has been falsified in the current context. |
| Keywords: | Cartels;Competition law;Overt collusion;Probit model with sample selection;the Netherlands. |
| JEL: | K21 L41 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:2011037&r=hme |
| By: | Graafland, J.J.; Ven, B.W. van de (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Starting from MacIntyre's virtue ethics, we investigate several codes of conduct of banks to identify the type of virtues that are needed to realize their mission. Based on this analysis, we define three core virtues: honesty, due care and accuracy. We compare and contrast these codes of conduct with the actual behavior of banks that led to the credit crisis and find that in some cases banks did not behave according to the moral standards they set themselves. However, notwithstanding these moral deficiencies, banks and the professionals working in them cannot be fully blamed for what they did, because the institutional context of the free market economy in which they operated left little room for them to live up to the core values lying at the basis of the codes of conduct. Given the neo-liberal free market system, innovative and risky strategies to enhance profits are considered desirable for the sake of shareholder's interests. A return to the core virtues in the financial sector will therefore only succeed if a renewed sense of responsibility in the sector is supported by institutional changes that allow banks to put their mission into practice. |
| Keywords: | Anglo Saxon capitalism;Banking sector;business principles of banks;credit crisis;external goods;internal goods;MacIntyre;Neo-liberalism. |
| JEL: | B31 B59 G21 G31 Z12 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:2011048&r=hme |
| By: | Libo Wu (Center for Energy Economics and Strategy Studies, Fudan University and Institute of World Economy, Fudan University); Jing Li (Department of World Economy, School of Economics, Fudan University); ZhongXiang Zhang (East-West Center) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to examine the impacts of oil-price shocks on China’s price levels. To that end, we develop a partial transmission input-output model that captures the uniqueness of the Chinese market. We hypothesize and simulate price control, market factors and technology substitution - the three main factors that restrict the functioning of a price pass-through mechanism during oil-price shocks. Using the models of both China and the U.S., we separate the impact of price control from those of other factors leading to China’s price stickiness under oil-price shocks. The results show a sharp contrast between China and the U.S., with price control in China significantly preventing oil-price shocks from spreading into its domestic inflation, especially in the short term. However, in order to strengthen the economy’s resilience to oil-price shocks, the paper suggests a gradual relaxing of price control in China. |
| Keywords: | Oil-price Shocks, Price Transmission, Price Control, Input-output Analysis, Inflation, Industrial Structure, China, the United States |
| JEL: | Q43 Q41 Q48 O13 O53 P22 E31 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2011.29&r=hme |
| By: | Jean-Claude Barbier (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | Cross-national comparison of policies is basically linked, albeit implicitly, to translation for two main reasons. On the one hand, understanding policies from a comparative point of view is impossible without taking seriously the central role played by language in any political activity. On the other hand, social science research is bound to remain a limited exercise if it postulates that language has no consequences on its very object. These assumptions are explored in the area of cross-national comparison of social policies. Reforms that were conducted for the last ten years on both sides of the Atlantic, under the label of "workfare" and of "activation of social protection" are a case in point. Exploring these reforms while bearing in mind the importance of their linguistic form and the meanings involved in their political construction, negotiation and discussion leads to stressing the importance of political cultures, a topic often underestimated by mainstream cross-national comparison of social protection and labour markets. |
| Keywords: | Cross-national comparison, workfare, activation policies, translation and methods, foreign languages. |
| JEL: | B59 I38 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:11029&r=hme |
| By: | René Böheim; Klemens Himpele; Helmut Mahringer; Christine Zulehner |
| Abstract: | Policies to reduce the gender pay gap feature prominently on the political agenda and interventions in the labor market are frequently proposed, claiming a persistent wage gap. We examine the change of the gender wage gap in Austria between 2002 and 2007 with new data from administrative records and find that it declined from 24% in 2002 to 19% in 2007. We observe that women's improved educational attainments were partly ofiset by a shift in the demand for skilled workers that disadvantaged unskilled labor. The main determinant of this decline is however the improvement of women's relative position in unobserved characteristics. |
| Keywords: | gender wage differentials, wage inequality, decomposition, matched employer-employee data |
| JEL: | J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2011_03&r=hme |
| By: | Lee, Frederic |
| Abstract: | This essay provides a short history of the Department of Economics at UMKC from 1929 to 2010. It shows the origins of its Institutionalist roots beginning in 1946 and ends with the development of the department as a internationally known center of Post Keynesian-Institutional-heterodox economics. |
| Keywords: | Institutionalism; Heterodox; Post Keynesian |
| JEL: | B23 A14 B5 |
| Date: | 2011–03–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:30492&r=hme |
| By: | Lee, Frederic |
| Abstract: | The resolution of the controversy over the microfoundations of macroeconomics is important to heterodox economics. In this essay, I argue that the controversy is due to misspecification. That is, the conventional understanding of the controversy is that it is a reductionist exercise of macroeconomics to mainstream microeconomics. However, mainstream microeconomics is theoretically incoherent and hence cannot provide the microfoundations for any macroeconomics, mainstream or heterodox. In addition, a common position in heterodox economics is that heterodox macroeconomics generates a mainstream microeconomics sub-structure. But it is argued that this is not the case; rather it generates a heterodox microeconomics substructure. The essay concludes with the argument that in heterodox economics the micro-macro dichotomy does not exist and hence the controversy should be dismissed. |
| Keywords: | Heterodox; Microeconomics; Macroeconomics |
| JEL: | E12 D01 B5 |
| Date: | 2011–04–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:30491&r=hme |
| By: | Lambais, GBR; Silveira, JMFJ; Magalhães, MM |
| Abstract: | This work deals with land reform in Brazil through an evolutionary and new institutional economics theoretical framework. Firstly, this theoretical underpinning delineates the existence of an intrinsic relation between asset equality and economic efficiency, going against the neoclassical trade-off. From this relation it is established that the utilization of society’s productive forces depends directly on institutional structures and propriety relations. In this sense, the way land reallocations are done, through different land redistribution policies, affects directly the level of agricultural product. The product is dependent on the level of allocative and technical efficiency society is submitted to. However, albeit static effects, society is susceptible to dynamic effects of institutional change. Insofar we develop analytical schematics where land reform is related to rural institutional change. From this schematics we derive the hypothesis that the market based land reform executed in Brazil, as a way to redistribute assets supposedly with a governance structure, system of incentives and complementary institutions to the factor markets, there is a gain in systemic productive efficiency at the microeconomic level. To test this hypothesis we develop a stochastic frontier econometric model with time-varying technical inefficiency effects and panel data. We analyze 106 projects of the Cédula da Terra Program in the states of Bahia, Maranhão, North of Minas Gerais, Pernambuco and Ceará, for the years 2000 and 2006. We conclude that this land reform has partial success in establishing productive organizations that evolve constantly their efficiency, wherein learning-by-doing is fundamental. Additionally, the governance effects are limited – the structure was not devised for institutional change – effects of transaction costs and conventions remain, causing market failure and persistence of inefficient forms of organization. |
| Keywords: | land reform; cédula da terra; brazil; stochastic frontier analysis; evolutionary; institutional economics |
| JEL: | B52 Q15 C33 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:30741&r=hme |
| By: | Lee, Frederic |
| Abstract: | In this essay, I examine the connection between pricing, profit mark ups, competition, and economic activity from a heterodox perspective. These issues are examined utilizing a two-industry Burchardt-Kaleckian production model and a labor-based mark up pricing model; the conclusion reached is that market structure and competition have no fundamental role in affecting pricing, profit mark ups, or economic activity. However, it is generally perceived in heterodox economics that competition does play an important role in the economy. This theme is discussed in conjunction with the going business enterprise. |
| Keywords: | Heterodox; Pricing; Competition |
| JEL: | D4 B5 |
| Date: | 2011–03–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:30490&r=hme |
| By: | Joseph P. Ferrie; Karen Rolf |
| Abstract: | The link between circumstances faced by individuals early in life (including those encountered in utero) and later life outcomes has been of increasing interest since the work of Barker in the 1970s on birth weight and adult disease. We provide such a life course perspective for the U.S. by following 45,000 U.S.-born males from the household where they resided before age 5 until their death and analyzing the link between the characteristics of their childhood environment – particularly, its socioeconomic status – and their longevity and specific cause of death. Individuals living before age 5 in lower SES households (measured by father’s occupation and family home ownership) die younger and are more likely to die from heart disease than those living in higher SES households. The pathways potentially generating these effects are discussed. |
| JEL: | I1 J1 N31 N32 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17016&r=hme |