scholarly journals Booms, Busts, and Divorce

Author(s):  
Judith K Hellerstein ◽  
Melinda Sandler Morrill

Abstract For almost a century, anecdotes have suggested that divorce rates decline during recessions. However, until very recently there has been surprisingly little formal empirical evidence on whether such a link exists, let alone its magnitude if it does. Moreover, the anticipated direction of the effect is ambiguous theoretically. Although previous studies have concluded that individual job loss destabilizes marriages, macroeconomic conditions may affect divorce probabilities even for those not directly experiencing a job shock. We add to the few existing contemporaneous studies of the effects of macroeconomic shocks on divorce by conducting an empirical analysis of the relationship between state-level unemployment rates and state-level divorce rates using vital statistics data on divorces in the United States from 1976-2009. We find a significant and robust negative relationship between the unemployment and divorce rates, whereby a one percentage point rise in the unemployment rate is associated with a decrease of 0.043 divorces per one thousand people, or about a one percent fall in the divorce rate. The result that divorce is pro-cyclical is robust to a host of alternative empirical specifications, to disaggregating by state characteristics and time period, to expanding the unemployment series back to 1970, and to using alternative measures of local economic conditions.

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 90 (6) ◽  
pp. 835-845
Author(s):  
Myron E. Wegman

Between 1990 and 1991, provisional data show that the infant mortality rate decreased again, from 9.1 to 8.9, a decline of 2% in contrast to the 7% decline from 1989 to 1990. Birth, death, and marriage rates were also lower, but the divorce rate stayed at about the same level as in 1990. Natural increase in the population, excess of births over deaths, was less than 2 million, 4% less than the increase in 1990. Detailed analysis of changes and of the influence of factors like age and race requires final data; at the time of preparation of this report final birth and death data were available only through 1989. For a variety of reasons, including staff shortages and delays in receipt of state data by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), final data for 1990, which would usually have been available in late August 1992, are not expected before early 1993. Unlike recent years, the decline in the infant mortality rate was only in the neonatal component, which decreased 3.6%. Postneonatal mortality increased, for the first time in many years, by 1.6%, suggesting that the decline in the total is related more to therapeutic advances in neonatology than to improved prevention. Internationally, newly independent Latvia was added to the list of countries with rates less than 15, but Costa Rica was deleted. With the reunification of Germany the list shrank to 28 and, by default, the United States moved up from 21st to 20th. Some 12.5 million births, less than 9% of the world total, took place in countries with under-5 mortality rates of less than 20 per 1000. At the other end of the scale, 42% of the world's births occurred in countries with under-5 mortality rates of more than 140 per 1000. The median under-5 mortality rate for those countries in 1990 was 189 per 1000, meaning that almost 20% of the infants born alive in these countries died before their fifth birthday.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (210) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamiar Mohaddes ◽  
M. Pesaran

The recent plunge in oil prices has brought into question the generally accepted view that lower oil prices are good for the United States and the global economy. In this paper, using a quarterly multi-country econometric model, we first show that a fall in oil prices tends relatively quickly to lower interest rates and inflation in most countries, and increase global real equity prices. The effects on real output are positive, although they take longer to materialize (around four quarters after the shock). We then re-examine the effects of low oil prices on the U.S. economy over different sub-periods using monthly observations on real oil prices, real equity prices and real dividends. We confirm the perverse positive relationship between oil and equity prices over the period since the 2008 financial crisis highlighted in the recent literature, but show that this relationship has been unstable when considered over the longer time period of 1946–2016. In contrast, we find a stable negative relationship between oil prices and real dividends which we argue is a better proxy for economic activity (as compared to equity prices). On the supply side, the effects of lower oil prices differ widely across the different oil producers, and could be perverse initially, as some of the major oil producers try to compensate their loss of revenues by raising production. Taking demand and supply adjustments to oil price changes as a whole, we conclude that oil markets equilibrate but rather slowly, with large episodic swings between low and high oil prices.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-141
Author(s):  
Mauro Joseph

AbstractThis paper explores the relationship between economic growth and intergenerational mobility in the United States. Data from metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S. is used to examine how two measures of intergenerational mobility impact growth rates. More precisely, I examine how absolute income mobility and relative income mobility are related the growth rate of real gross metropolitan product (RGMP) from 2001 to 2011. I find that absolute mobility has a positive relationship with RGMP growth over the time period, and that relative mobility exhibits a negative relationship with RGMP. Results are found to be robust to two stage least squares estimation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S805-S806
Author(s):  
Susan L Brown ◽  
I-Fen Lin

Abstract Roughly one-third of dissolutions among married persons aged 50 and older occur through divorce rather than widowhood, reflecting the rising gray divorce rate and lengthening life expectancies. We use data from the 1980 Vital Statistics and the 2017 American Community Survey (ACS) to estimate the divorce and widowhood rates among married individuals (aged 50+) in 1980 and 2017 to track how much the widowhood rate has declined and the divorce rate has risen. In 1980, women’s widowhood rates exceeded their divorce rates at all ages. For men, the rate of divorce outpaced the rate of widowhood through ages 50-54. By 2017, divorce rates were higher for women through ages 55-59 and for men through ages 60-64, coinciding with the growth in gray divorce. We also examine subgroup variation in the 2017 patterns and the sociodemographic correlates of having experienced divorce versus widowhood during the past year using the ACS data.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Joshua Waimberg ◽  
Lindsay K. Cloud ◽  
Andrew T. Campbell ◽  
Ruth Lindberg ◽  
Keshia M. Pollack

Background: To collect and analyze state-level Health Impact Assessment (HIA) legislative activity. Methods: Two longitudinal datasets examining state-level HIA legislation across the United States between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2016 were developed using the policy surveillance process. One dataset captures the characteristics of all HIA bills that were introduced and failed, or introduced and were still under consideration, during the time period of the study; the second dataset captures the characteristics of all HIA laws that were enacted or amended, including statutes and regulations.  Results: Forty-three HIA bills were introduced that require, encourage, or incentivize the use of an HIA, and three of these bills were enacted or amended into law, between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2016. Conclusions: Additional research is necessary to understand the factors that drive success or failure of HIA legislation, and the impacts of such legislation when implemented on decision-making, health determinants and outcomes, and health equity. Policy Implications: Although legislation can encourage further use of HIAs, they need to provide sufficient clarity, guidance, and resources to effectively foster use of HIAs.


2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 519-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexa L Solazzo

AbstractThe number of regulations surrounding abortion has increased drastically in recent years. It is important to assess how these laws relate to abortion timing, since the cost, safety, and accessibility of abortion varies by how many weeks pregnant a woman is when the procedure occurs. Research examining how state laws relate to abortion timing generally use rates or data from vital statistics; while informative, such methods do not allow researchers to examine how these laws may be disproportionately associated with abortion timing among select groups of women, including poor and nonwhite women. To fill this research gap, I analyze data from the nationally representative 2008 Abortion Patient Survey, with appended information on state laws regarding abortion in 2008. I find that laws requiring second trimester abortions be performed in a hospital and both in-person counselling and waiting periods have different associations with abortion timing based on race and income-to-poverty status. Predicted abortion timing for black and Hispanic women differs based on state laws and their income-to-poverty status, while for white women, models show that the association between state laws and abortion timing is not dependent on their income-to-poverty status. Overall, this research illustrates the relevance of state-level abortion laws for shaping abortion timing among women, highlighting how these relationships differ across racial and socioeconomic groups in the United States.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jarrett Hart ◽  
Julian M. Alston

AbstractGlobal consumption patterns for alcoholic beverages are evolving, with some convergence in per capita consumption among nations as traditionally beer-drinking nations increase their consumption of wine and, conversely, wine-consuming nations shift towards beer. This article explores regional patterns of alcoholic beverage consumption within the United States. One purpose is to see if similar patterns of spatial convergence in consumption patterns can be observed within countries as have been documented in international comparisons. A more fundamental purpose is to explore the converse question and seek to better understand the persistent differences in alcoholic beverage consumption among groups. These issues are addressed using annual U.S. national and state-level data over four decades and, for the more recent period, supermarket scanner data at finer scales of geopolitical aggregation. Socioeconomic and other demographic variables appear to play significant roles in accounting for the spatial differences in consumption patterns, although the details vary across different models and data sets. The analysis of demand using less-aggregative data for a shorter time period reveals some shortcomings in the corresponding analysis based on state-level data over a longer time period, but with poorly measured prices. These findings might extrapolate to studies making international comparisons using national aggregate data. (JEL Classifications: D12, L66)


Author(s):  
Navid Asadizanjani ◽  
Sachin Gattigowda ◽  
Mark Tehranipoor ◽  
Domenic Forte ◽  
Nathan Dunn

Abstract Counterfeiting is an increasing concern for businesses and governments as greater numbers of counterfeit integrated circuits (IC) infiltrate the global market. There is an ongoing effort in experimental and national labs inside the United States to detect and prevent such counterfeits in the most efficient time period. However, there is still a missing piece to automatically detect and properly keep record of detected counterfeit ICs. Here, we introduce a web application database that allows users to share previous examples of counterfeits through an online database and to obtain statistics regarding the prevalence of known defects. We also investigate automated techniques based on image processing and machine learning to detect different physical defects and to determine whether or not an IC is counterfeit.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Elias Randjbaran ◽  
Reza Tahmoorespour ◽  
Marjan Rezvani ◽  
Meysam Safari

This study investigates the impact of oil price variation on 14 industries in six markets, including Canada, China, France, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Panel weekly data were collected from June 1998 to December 2011. The results indicate that price fluctuations primarily affect the Oil and Gas as well as the Mining industries and have the least influence on the Food and Beverage industry. Furthermore, in three out of six of these countries (Canada, France, and the U.K.), oil price changes negatively affect the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology industry. One possible reason for the negative relationship between oil price changes and the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology industries in the above-mentioned countries is that the governments of these countries fund their healthcare systems. Portfolio managers and investors will find the results of this study useful because it enables adjusting portfolios based on knowledge of the industries that are impacted the most or the least by oil price fluctuations.


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