Author Archive for ljridley

Income Mobility and Welfare

Published by ljridley on April 18, 2013 in Human Capital, Labor & Wealth and Working Papers.

International Monetary Fund Working Paper
By: Tom Krebs, Pravin Krishna, and William Maloney

Abstract:

This paper develops a framework for the quantitative analysis of individual income dynamics, mobility and welfare. Individual income is assumed to follow a stochastic process with two (unobserved) components, an i.i.d. component representing measurement error or transitory income shocks and an AR(1) component representing persistent changes in income. We use a tractable consumption-saving model with labor income risk and incomplete markets to relate income dynamics to consumption and welfare, and derive analytical expressions for income mobility and welfare as a function of the various parameters of the underlying income process. The empirical application of our framework using data on individual incomes from Mexico provides striking results. Much of measured income mobility is driven by measurement error or transitory income shocks and therefore (almost) welfare-neutral. A smaller part of measured income mobility is due to either welfare-reducing income risk or welfare-enhancing catching-up of low-income individuals with high-income individuals, both of which have economically significant effects on social welfare. Decomposing mobility into its fundamental components is thus seen to be crucial from the standpoint of welfare evaluation.

Free full text (PDF, 700KB)

Call for Papers: Epidemiologic Reviews

Published by ljridley on January 11, 2013 in New Resources.

Epidemiologic Reviews is a sister publication of American Journal of Epidemiology and publishes critical reviews on specific themes once a year. The theme in 2014 will be Women’s Health and manuscript submissions are being solicited.

More information can be found here.

For Americans Under 50, Stark Findings on Health

Published by ljridley on January 11, 2013 in Health, Disability & Mortality.

By: Sabrina Tavernise
Source: New York Times

From article:

Younger Americans die earlier and live in poorer health than their counterparts in other developed countries, with far higher rates of death from guns, car accidents and drug addiction, according to a new analysis of health and longevity in the United States.

Researchers have known for some time that the United States fares poorly in comparison with other rich countries, a trend established in the 1980s. But most studies have focused on older ages, when the majority of people die.

This article is based on U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council. The pre-publication edition is available to read online for free here.

An interactive graph comparing the United States and 16 “peer” countries is here and the project website is here.

Health at a Glance: Europe 2012

Published by ljridley on November 29, 2012 in Health, Disability & Mortality.

Source: OECD, Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs

From publication website:

This second edition of Health at a Glance: Europe presents a set of key indicators of health status, determinants of health, health care resources and activities, quality of care, health expenditure and financing in 35 European countries, including the 27 European Union member states, 5 candidate countries and 3 EFTA countries.

The selection of indicators is based largely on the European Community Health Indicators (ECHI) shortlist, a set of indicators that has been developed to guide the reporting of health statistics in the European Union. It is complemented by additional indicators on health expenditure and quality of care, building on the OECD expertise in these areas.

Each indicator is presented in a user-friendly format, consisting of charts illustrating variations across countries and over time, a brief descriptive analysis highlighting the major findings conveyed by the data, and a methodological box on the definition of the indicator and any limitations in data comparability.

Full text (PDF)

The Happy Planet Index: 2012 Report

Published by ljridley on August 16, 2012 in Health, Disability & Mortality and Human Capital, Labor & Wealth.

A Global Index of Sustainable Well-Being
Source: The New Economics Foundation

From the Executive Summary:
There is a growing global consensus that we need new measures of progress. It is critical that these measures clearly reflect what we value – something the current approach fails to do.

The Happy Planet Index (HPI) measures what matters. It tells us how well nations are doing in terms of supporting their inhabitants to live good lives now, while ensuring that others can do the same in the future, i.e. sustainable well-being for all.

The third global HPI report reveals that this is largely still an unhappy planet – with both high and low-income countries facing many challenges on their way to meeting this same overall goal. But it also demonstrates that good lives do not have to cost the Earth – that the countries where well-being is highest are not always the ones that have the biggest environmental impact.

The HPI is one of the first global measures of sustainable well-being. It uses global data on experienced well-being, life expectancy, and Ecological Footprint to generate an index revealing which countries are most efficient at producing long, happy lives for their inhabitants, whilst maintaining the conditions for future generations to do the same.

Full text available (PDF)

New POPLINE website

Published by ljridley on August 1, 2012 in New Resources.

From the announcement:
This revised website gives you new ways to use POPLINE, the world’s largest database of reproductive health literature. Though we add thousands of new records to the database each year, this is the first major update to the website since 2003.

What’s New?

    Modern design
    Multiple export options
    Mobile-friendly interface
    Customizable Advanced Search
    Saved searches and My Documents
    Over 400-pre-coordinated instant searches
    User profiles & updated document request process
    Filter search results by Keyword, Country, Language, and Year

U.S. Launches Interactive HIV/AIDS Database on Census.gov

Published by ljridley on August 1, 2012 in Health, Disability & Mortality.

[MONDAY, JULY 23, 2012] The U.S. Census Bureau today launched an interactive global resource on the prevalence of HIV infection and AIDS cases and deaths. The database was developed in 1987 and now holds 149,000 statistics, an increase of approximately 10,800 new estimates in the last year, making it the most complete of its kind in the world. The launch comes as thousands of people worldwide meet in Washington, D.C., for the International AIDS Conference this week.

The resource is maintained by the Census Bureau with funding from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby, head of PEPFAR, said on the launch, “This release of the HIV/AIDS database will expand global access to data that are critical to understanding the epidemic. This information is invaluable for the evidence-based response PEPFAR is championing.”

Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said “This database provides the people who need it with quality statistics — supporting the life-saving efforts of our partners at PEPFAR and USAID and the doctors, nurses and public health officials working to reach the end of AIDS.”

The tool is a library of statistics from more than 12,000 articles in international scientific and medical journals, individual countries’ annual HIV/AIDS surveillance reports, and papers and posters presented at international conferences.

The menu-driven access tool permits users to search for statistical information in countries and territories across the world, as well as by subpopulation, geographic subarea (such as urban and rural), age, sex and year (back to 1960).

Statistics for the United States are available separately from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

SNAP’s Role in the Great Recession and Beyond

Published by ljridley on July 13, 2012 in Human Capital, Labor & Wealth.

By: Sheila R. Zedlewski, Elaine Waxman, and Craig Gundersen
Source: Urban Institute

Abstract:

During the Great Recession, millions of Americans turned to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, to help pay for food. This brief summarizes a roundtable discussion among experts, advocates and government officials focused on SNAP’s role during the recession and beyond, including its impact on poverty, food insecurity and health. Experts concluded that SNAP does more than combat hunger – it is an antipoverty program, a work support, a promoter of health and nutrition, and an automatic stabilizer in recessions.

Full document (PDF)

The 10 Largest Hispanic Origin Groups: Characteristics, Rankings, Top Counties

Published by ljridley on July 13, 2012 in Population Dynamics - Urbanization, Migration.

by Seth Motel and Eileen Patten
Source: Pew Research Center, Hispanic Center

From Overview:

Among the 50.7 million Hispanics in the United States, nearly two-thirds (65%), or 33 million, self-identify as being of Mexican origin, according to tabulations of the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS) by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center. No other Hispanic subgroup rivals the size of the Mexican-origin population. Puerto Ricans, the nation’s second largest Hispanic origin group, make up just 9% of the total Hispanic population in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Overall, the 10 largest Hispanic origin groups—Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Salvadorans, Dominicans, Guatemalans, Colombians, Hondurans, Ecuadorians and Peruvians—make up 92% of the U.S. Hispanic population. Six Hispanic origin groups have populations greater than 1 million.

Complete Report (PDF)

The Rise of Asian Americans

Published by ljridley on July 13, 2012 in Population Dynamics - Urbanization, Migration.

Source: Pew Research Center, Social & Demographic Trends

From overview:

Asian Americans are the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States. They are more satisfied than the general public with their lives, finances and the direction of the country, and they place more value than other Americans do on marriage, parenthood, hard work and career success, according to a comprehensive new nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center.

A century ago, most Asian Americans were low-skilled, low-wage laborers crowded into ethnic enclaves and targets of official discrimination. Today they are the most likely of any major racial or ethnic group in America to live in mixed neighborhoods and to marry across racial lines.

Report by chapter and other materials (HTML)
Compete Report (PDF)
Topline Questionnaire (PDF)