This paper examines the effects of individual, household and community characteristics on two aspects of fertility among South African women - the age at first conception and the number of pregnancies. We find that education has a significant effect in pushing back the age at first conception...

It is often argued that a rapid rise in educational attainment of women, an increase in the age at marriage and an increase in the age at first birth are key features of demographic transition in any country. Education is the prime catalyst in this process because increases in educational...

Evidence from most developing countries suggest that parents have a preference for sons over daughters. This is know as son preference. This paper uses individual level unit record data to test the son preference hypothesis in South Africa. We use an accelerated hazard model to estimate the...

Elasticities are often estimated from the results of demand analysis however, drawing inferences from them may involve assumptions that could influence the outcome. In this paper we investigate one of the most common forms of elasticity which is defined as a ratio of estimated relationships and...

This paper examines the Regional Clean Air Incentives MArket (RECLAIM) which was launched in Los Angeles in January 1994. RECLAIM is an emissions trading program which is expected to decrease hazardous pollutants from stationary sources in the South Coast Basin. I analyze the transactions data...

The central question faced by policy makers contemplating decriminalization of cannabis is whether such a move will lead to an increase in use, and if so, by whom and by how much. We address this question by investigating the impact of decriminalization on the decision to start using cannabis....

This paper investigates whether cannabis use leads to worse mental health. To do so, we account for common unobserved factors aecting mental health and cannabis consumption by modeling mental health jointly with the dynamics of cannabis use. Our main nding is that using cannabis increases the...

In this paper we use individual level data from the Australian National Drug Strategy Household Survey to study the relationship between initiation into cannabis use and educational attainment. Using instrumental variable estimation and bivariate duration analysis we find that those initiating...

Spillover and contagion eects have gained significant interest in the recent years of financial crisis. Attention has not only been directed to relations between returns of financial variables, but to spillovers in risk as well. I use the family of Constant Conditional Correlation GARCH models...

This paper examines take-up rates in a simple model in which there is a single means-tested benefit involving a 'taper rate' at which benefits are withdrawn as earnings increase. There is a fixed cost of applying for benefits. The model involves a joint decision regarding both labour supply and...