We analyze the causal impact of an increase in the risk of marital dissolution on the saving behavior of married couples. 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 use a difference-in-differences approach.…

This paper assesses whether school lunches contribute to childhood obesity. I employ two methods to isolate the causal impact of school lunches on obesity. First, using panel data, I ?nd that children who consume school lunches are more likely to be obese than those who brown bag their lunches even though they enter kindergarten with the same…

Two arguments against the Hansen-Weisbrod study (which stated that subsidies in California public higher education discriminate against students from lower income families) are presented: (1) comparison should be based on the age of the family head (35-60 years), and (2) student financial aid should be added to tuition subsidies. (Author/EC)

The Panel Study on Income Dynamics is used to study the trends in the elasticity of son's income in relation to parental income. The study reveals a nonlinear trend that increased for sons born between 1949 and 1953 and then declined for sons born after 1953. The direction of this linear trend is dependent on the time period and could be upward,…

A comparative study of medical students who estimated physicians' income during their first and fourth years of study throws up interesting results. The medical students typically overestimated physician income by 25% on an average, with differences marked by age, women, older students, students with high MCAT scores. Final year students'…

We use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to estimate the effect of new saving incentives implemented as part of the 1996 welfare reform on household saving. Economic theory predicts that loosening asset limits will increase total savings for households with a large ex-ante probability of welfare receipt such as female-headed households…

Cautions that acceptance of a higher level of unemployment will seriously delay, or even eliminate, the prospect of black incomes reaching equality with white income levels. (BH)