Public Investments and Class Gaps in Parents’ Developmental Expenditures

Families and governments are the primary sources of investment in children, providing access to basic resources and other developmental opportunities. Recent research identifies significant class gaps in parental investments that contribute to high levels of inequality by family income and education. State-level public investments in children and families have the potential to reduce class inequality in children’s developmental environments by affecting parents’ behavior. Using newly assembled administrative data from 1998 to 2014, linked to household-level data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey, we examine how public-sector investment in income support, health, and education is associated with the private expenditures of low- and high-SES parents on developmental items for children. Are class gaps in parental investments in children narrower in contexts of higher public investment for children and families? We find that more generous public spending for children and families is associated with significantly narrower class gaps in private parental investments. Furthermore, we find that equalization is driven by bottom-up increases in low-SES households’ developmental spending in response to progressive state investments of income support and health, and by top-down decreases in high-SES households’ developmental spending in response to universal state investment in public education.

Measuring the Economic Impact of COVID-19 on the UK’s Leisure and Sport during the 2020 Lockdown

This research evaluates the effect of the SARS-CoV2 pandemic on sport Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and consumer expenditure in the leisure sector in the United Kingdom (UK). The leisure sector is divided into leisure at home and away from home, examining in this way the different patterns that emerged because of the national lockdown in 2020. The effect on sport GDP is examined using the Office for National Statistics (ONS) surveys and the UK Sport Satellite Account (SSA). The study found that, because of its reliance on human contact, sport GDP is likely to decline by more than twice the rate of the overall economy. Furthermore, this finding is consistent with the 2020 consumer expenditure on leisure that shows increases in spending on home leisure but also a huge decline in spending on out-of-home entertainment. The decline in GDP is extremely likely to put pressure on profit margins and hence threaten the survival of private enterprises, raising issues of sustainability under conditions of a pandemic. Increases in long-term public funding for reducing sport inequalities should be considered along with short-term relief packages for the sport sector. Additional policy suggestions are offered to address these issues.

Non-linear pricing in E-commerce: an exploration

PurposeTo understand the new non-linear pricing in E-commerce. The present paper aims to put forth an idea of using tie-in agreement in the electronic commerce market in the name of trust in India. According to the Indian antitrust law, tie-in agreement is not allowed to use as compulsory in an offer to the buyer. This means that a tie-in agreement cannot be a compulsion or only an option to the buyer. This means it can be an extra option.Design/methodology/approachThe paper shows that using this logic the sellers are giving two options simultaneously to the buyer: (1) a commodity with a tie-in agreement and (2) the same commodity without a tie-in agreement. Therefore, there are two price mechanisms that are present. Now it is the decision of the buyer to choose between the two. These two price mechanisms create a new variable called trust. If the buyer selects the first option, then that buyer will not be treated as a trustworthy buyer, but in the second case, the buyer would be treated as a trustworthy or the affianced buyer. Therefore, the buyer would be leaning toward the second option. The paper proves that in the second option it would be difficult to minimize the consumer expenditure. As a result, there would be a situation of non-linear pricing in the name of trust which is hidden in the offer. The present work gives both theoretical models and empirical justifications.FindingsWe find that E-wallet is often used when a consumer orders food online but offline cash payment is preferred. Therefore, the offer does matter for the consumer. Hence, the offer can be used to make a tie-in arrangement. Therefore, even if there is a tie-in arrangement in online food servicing applications, the Competition Commission of India can restrict such practices as for illegal tying, the firm has to have the monopoly power in one market and there should be compulsory tie-arrangement in another market. But it does not mean that E-wallet tie-arrangement cannot be ignored as the monopoly power in the online food servicing market can influence the market share in the E-wallet market. Tie-in arrangement is also important, as the consumer has to spend more under cashback offer conditions which reduce the long-run gain of consumers.Originality/valueThe paper considered trust as a new element in forming non-linear pricing. This is new to this literature.

The Determinants of Binge Drinking: Do Frequency, Intensity, Price and Expenditure Shares Matter?

Objective: Examine how socio-economic status (SES) and health outcomes affect binge-drinking demand using a novel approach integrating population health with consumer expenditure data.Design, Setting, and Participants: The study design uses a structural equation model to uncover the association between binge-drinking and SES. I use the 2016 wave of two annually conducted national population surveys in this research: the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance (BRFS) and the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX), to examine the correlates of binge-drinking. The combined aggregated data integrates alcohol expenditure shares and state-level alcohol prices from the CEX with the BRFS data. The BRFS data partially identifies the at-risk for binge-drinking respondents for our analysis.Main outcome and exposures: Alcohol consumption > 0 in 30 days and binge-drinking is positive (per occasion drinks > 5 male or > 4 female).Results: The binge-drinking prevalence in the BRFS sample, with 457,202 respondents 18 and older, is 17.0% points. Associations with binge-drinking are the same for the poorest and richest income quartiles. Age has the strongest variation. Compared to those over 65, ages 18 ¬– 21 participated in binge-drinking more, and ages 30 – 64 participated much less. Contrasted with those out-of-the-labor-force, the employed participated in binge-drinking more by 3.5% [95% CI, 2.3%, 5.0%] and those unable to work by 4.5% [95% CI, 3.3%, 6.0%] less. The estimated structural models show that, conditional on binge-drinking in a 30-day period, those with high school education or more increased binge-drinking intensity by 3.4% [95% CI, 1.3%, 5.5%] to 5.0% [95% CI, 2.8%, 7.2%] .As people age, expenditure shares on alcohol and cigarettes decrease but healthcare expenditure shares increase proportionately. Furthermore, compared to those without any chronic health conditions alcohol shares decrease by 0.5 [95% CI, -0.57, -0.43] times as number of health conditions increase; this decrease in alcohol consumptions is substituted by increased expenditure shares on food and health care proportionately. Compared to those without high school education alcohol shares decrease with education 0.13 [95% CI, 0.05, 0.23] times for high school graduates and 0.10 [95% CI, 0.3 0.21] times for those with college degrees.Conclusion and Relevance: Bridging the gap between population health and consumer data reveals income effects of binge-drinking are best captured using BRFS because we can characterize a population at risk for binge drinking. CEX best captures income shares and substitution effects between alcohol, smoking, health and food. Alcohol consumption is associated with employment and engaging in other risky behaviors. While this analysis was conducted using 2016 BRFS data the results are generalizable to 2019 BRFS data and extendable to COVID-19 era. Preliminary indications are that alcohol consumption have gone up during COVID-19 thus mobilizing resources to reduce binge-drinking is welfare enhancing. A plausible policy implication from this study is to advertise safe drinking on all alcoholic beverages and provide alcohol-specific education on self-and-other harm.

Diversity in food consumption: Evidences from urban Kerala

Food is fundamental to human survival and it appears to be the first item of the family budget allocation of all irrespective of class to which they belong. Kerala ranks top among the major States of India in the MPCE on food in the post liberalized era. A perusal of NSS data exhibits that, MPCE of urban Kerala is ahead of the rural for the last few decades, however, a sharp decline is noted in the last decade (2001-2011). Along with an increase in MPCE on food, an increase in food diversity is being expected. The study probe into the extent of food diversity among different income strata of urban Kerala with the unit-level data from NSS 68 consumer expenditure survey. The findings indicate that the share of expenditure on cereal in total food expenditure is high in the low-income class and low in the high-income group. The state of Kerala has high food diversity across all income classes signals a better diet quality of people. It is revealed that food diversity is low in the high and low-income groups compared to middle-income group.

The Summer Parental Investment Gap? Socioeconomic Gaps in the Seasonality of Parental Expenditures and Time with School-Age Children

Scholars have theorized how private parental investments of money and time in children may respond differentially to the loss of the public provision of schooling during the summer, based on parental socioeconomic status (SES). Importantly, the widening of SES gaps in parental investments of money and time in children during the summer could generate SES gaps in children’s learning during the summer. We investigate the seasonality of SES gaps in parental investments of both money and time using the 1996–2018 Consumer Expenditure Survey and 2003–2019 American Time Use Survey. We find SES gaps in parental investments of both money and time during the summer and SES gaps in expenditures are larger in the summer than during non-summer months. We find little evidence that these gaps have grown substantially over time, but we do find these gaps are larger for younger school-age children than for older school-age children. This research provides new evidence regarding the link between public and parental investments in children, addresses a key mechanism underlying the debate about the summer learning gap, and provides new evidence on how parents may target investments in children towards the ages when they are most consequential.

Consumer Expenditure Survey Methods Symposium and Microdata Users’ Workshop, July 21–24, 2020

The Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE) program collects expenditure, demographic, and income data from families and households. The CE program held its annual Survey Methods Symposium and Microdata Users’ Workshop from July 21 to 24, 2020, to address CE-related topics in survey methods research, to provide free training in the structure and uses of the CE microdata, and to explore possibilities for collaboration. Economists from the CE program, staff from other U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics offices, and research experts in a variety of fields—including academia, government, and private industry—gathered virtually to explore better ways to collect CE data and to learn how to use the microdata once they are produced. The experience was unique for presenters and attendees alike in that this was the first time either event was held online, in whole or in part.