| 潇湘渌水 @ 2010-10-08 19:23 一篇论证美国卫生系统没有想象中那么差的文章，这也是针对一场旷日持久的辩论，一边是Democrats说卫生系统怎么怎么烂，无法满足需求，一边是说那也没必要搞什么health reform。 source:Health Affairs, doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2010.0073 What Changes In Survival Rates Tell Us About US Health Care Peter A. Muennig,* and Sherry A. Glied |
| 潇湘渌水 @ 2010-10-01 20:01 The increase in income per capita is accompanied, in virtually all countries, by two changes in economic structure: the increase in the share of government spending in gross domestic product (GDP), and the increase in female labor force participation. We argue that these two changes are causally related. We develop a growth model based on Galor and Weil (1996) where female participation in market activities, fertility, and government size, in addition to consumption and saving, is endogenously determined. Rising incomes lead to a rise in female labor force participation as the opportunity cost of staying at home and caring for the children increases. In our model, higher government spending decreases the cost of performing household chores, including, but not limited to, child rearing and child care, as in Rosen (1996). We also use a wide cross-section of data for developed and developing countries and show that higher market participation by women is positively and robustly associated with government size. We then investigate the causal link between participation and government size using a novel unique data set that allows the use of the relative price of productive home appliances as an instrumental variable. We find strong evidence of a causal link between female market participation and government size. This effect is robust to the country sample, time period, and a set of controls in the spirit of Rodrik (1998). (JEL O4, E62, H11) Source: CAVALCANTI, and TAVARES, WOMEN PREFER LARGER GOVERNMENTS: GROWTH, STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION, AND GOVERNMENT SIZE. Economic Inquiry, no. doi: 10.1111/j.1465-7295.2010.00315.x 这大概就是那种好的文章，从第一眼看题目就很有吸引力的“女性更偏爱大政府：增长，结构转型和政府规模”。在现代经济增长中有两个变化是可以观察到的：即政府支出占GDP比重和女性劳动力参与的同时增长。作者认为这两者是有因果联系的（注意哦，是causally related）。在作者的增长模型中：收入增长导致女性在家干活的机会成本增加，所以女性会更愿意出去干活；同时更高的政府支出又会减少家务活的成本（相当于福利更好了，比如待孩子啊等等的成本将会下降-Rosen1996），也就是说此消彼长，女性当然更愿意选择出去干活了。作者同时使用了一个包含发展中国家和发达国家的横截面数据库进行测量，发现女性的劳动参与率和政府规模有着稳健的正相关（这里我想说横截面检验因果是差强人意的，将来可在同一个议题上使用面板数据检验）。发现了相关后，作者使用一个新的唯一的数据库，并使用生产性的家用电器(productive home appliances??)的相对价格作为IV变量检测因果关系。终于作者发现了因果关系--即女性出于自身选择会更愿意支持大政府，因为她们希望工作希望赚钱。恩，但总觉得中间少了点什么，或许少了个中介变量？ |
2011年2月25日
health system真的就那么差？--女性更偏爱大政府？
