Knowledge that Transforms

Disentangling the Effects of Health Reform in Massachusetts: How Important Are the Special Provisions for Young Adults? by Sharon K. Long, Alshadye Yemane and Karen Stockley. Published in volume 100, issue 2, pages 297-302 of American Economic Review, May 2010

Recent economic trends, like the growing prevalence of defined contribution retirement plans, have made individuals increasingly responsible for their own financial security. Financial security greatly depends on the ability to accumulate adequate wealth (Edward Wolff 1998). Wealth can be a significant source of retirement income for individuals less and less able to rely on Social Security and employerprovided defined benefit pension plans. One concern in the current economic climate is the persistent gap in wealth between men and women. Several papers—for example Lucie Schmidt and Purvi Sevak (2006)—have found that the gap is significant even after controlling for individual characteristics. This paper contributes to the literature by studying the role of risk preferences in addition to other characteristics. Specifically, it addresses the following research question: controlling for other factors, do gender differences in risk preferences contribute to the gender wealth gap at retirement? The underlying premise is that women are more risk averse than men, which is supported by previous research (for example, Robert B. Barsky et al. 1997). A simple theoretical model of household decision-making illustrates that retirement wealth is a function of income earned over the lifetime and risk aversion. The model is empirically tested using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS).1 Results show that the gender gap in wealth persists even when risk preferences are added to the set of controls. Thus the unexplained gap remains a cause for concern.

This paper investigates the role of social learning in the diffusion of a new agricultural technology in Ghana. We use unique data on farmers' communication patterns to define each individual's information neighborhood. Conditional on many potentially confounding variables, we find evidence that farmers adjust their inputs to align with those of their information neighbors who were surprisingly successful in previous periods. The relationship of these input adjustments to experience further indicates the presence of social learning. In addition, applying the same method to input choices for another crop, of known technology, correctly indicates an absence of social learning effects.

Three quarters of all violence against women is perpetrated by domestic partners. This study exploits exogenous changes in the demand for labor in female-dominated industries to estimate the impact of the male-female wage gap on domestic violence. Decreases in the wage gap reduce violence against women, consistent with a household bargaining model. These findings shed new light on the health production process as well as observed income gradients in health and suggest that in addition to addressing concerns of equity and efficiency, pay parity can also improve the health of American women via reductions in violence.

Debt Consolidation and Fiscal Stabilization of Deep Recessions by Giancarlo Corsetti, Keith Kuester, André Meier and Gernot J. Müller. Published in volume 100, issue 2, pages 41-45 of American Economic Review, May 2010

Accepted Manuscript

An Individual Health Plan Exchange: Which Employees Would Benefit and Why? by Leemore Dafny, Katherine Ho and Mauricio Varela. Published in volume 100, issue 2, pages 485-89 of American Economic Review, May 2010

Social identities prescribe behaviors for people. We identify the marginal behavioral effect of these norms on discount rates and risk aversion by measuring how laboratory subjects' choices change when an aspect of social identity is made salient. When we make ethnic identity salient to Asian-American subjects, they make more patient choices. When we make racial identity salient to black subjects, non-immigrant blacks (but not immigrant blacks) make more patient choices. Making gender identity salient has no effect on intertemporal or risk choices.

Learning to Cope: Voluntary Financial Education and Loan Performance during a Housing Crisis by Sumit Agarwal, Gene Amromin, Itzhak Ben-David, Souphala Chomsisengphet and Douglas D. Evanoff. Published in volume 100, issue 2, pages 495-500 of American Economic Review, May 2010