In three binary choice problems, people reveal a choice pattern which falsifies expected utility theory and many generalized non-expected utility theories. This new paradox challenges popular non-expected utility models analogously to how the Allais paradox challenged neoclassical expected...

This letter develops a set of simple conditions under which an individual is willing to save an extra amount of money due to the presence of ambiguity concerning his second period wealth. This extra precautionary saving motive is naturally associated with the notion of ambiguity prudence.

Previous studies have found adverse effects of maternal employment on child obesity for higher educated mothers. Using a quasi-structural model, we find additionally a lower risk of obesity for children of less educated mothers with increased time in non-parental childcare.

Work and life satisfaction depend on a number of pecuniary and non-pecuniary factors at the workplace and determine these in turn. We analyze these causal linkages using a structural vector autoregression approach for a German sample of the working populace from 1984 to 2008, finding that...

We exploit a sharp change in the likelihood that an individual is covered by health insurance when he/she turns 19 years of age to study how health insurance affects reported health status. We find that an individual is 6 percentage points less likely to have health insurance when he/she turns...

In most demographic transitions, declines in child mortality precede declines in net fertility rates. Variants of the Barro–Becker model of fertility fail to deliver this link. A simple extension, the inclusion of social norms regarding fertility, generates the desired effect.

Using a unique random survey of prostitutes in Taipei city of Taiwan, this study investigates the association between obesity, condom use and prostitutes’ price. Results show that overweight prostitutes charge less for their services. However, prostitutes charge more for performing risky sex...

We estimate the economic impact of the Italian smoking ban of 2005 on the catering sector using a quasi-experimental design. Our study indicates that the Italian smoking ban had a slight negative impact on sales of cafés and restaurants but had no effect on profits, earnings, or employment.

This paper uses high quality register-data to study the spillover effects on firstborns from having a younger sibling suffering from ADHD. Using OLS and cousin fixed effects analyses it is found that the educational outcomes of healthy firstborn children are significantly reduced by the presence...

We back out an estimate of a personal discount rate of between 3 and 4 percent for a person with a life expectancy of 74 years who dies at age 30 or 40 and has a value of statistical life of $6.3 million. We employ the Makeham “model” of life expectancy and Murphy–Topel “values of life...