scholarly journals Consumption Responses to In-Kind Transfers: Evidence from the Introduction of the Food Stamp Program

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 109-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilary W Hoynes ◽  
Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

Economists have strong theoretical predictions about how in-kind transfers, such as providing vouchers for food, impact consumption. Despite the prominence of the theory, there is little empirical work on responses to in-kind transfers, and most existing work fails to support the canonical theoretical model. We employ difference-in-difference methods to estimate the impact of program introduction on food spending. Consistent with predictions, we find that food stamps reduce out-of-pocket food spending and increase overall food expenditures. We also find that households are inframarginal and respond similarly to one dollar in cash income and one dollar in food stamps. (JEL D12, H23, I38)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Lu ◽  
Hong Wu

BACKGROUND Online healthcare communities are changing the ways of physician-patient communication and how patients choose outpatient care physicians. Although a majority of empirical work has examined the role of online reviews in consumer decisions, less research has been done in health care, and endogeneity of online reviews has not been fully considered. Moreover, the important factor of physician online services has been neglected in patient decisions. OBJECTIVE In this paper, we addressed the endogeneity of online reviews and examined the impact of online reviews and services on outpatient visits based on theories of reviews and channel effects. METHODS We used a difference-in-difference approach to account for physician- and website-specific effects by collecting information from 474 physician homepages on two online health care communities. RESULTS We found that the number of reviews was more effective in influencing patient decisions compared with the overall review rating. An improvement in reviews leads to a relative increase in physician outpatient visits on that website. There are channel effects in health care: online services complement offline services (outpatient care appointments). Results further indicate that online services moderate the relationship between online reviews and physician outpatient visits. CONCLUSIONS This study investigated the effect of reviews and channel effects in health care by conducting a difference-in-difference analysis on two online health care communities. Our findings provide basic research on online health care communities.


10.2196/16185 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. e16185
Author(s):  
Wei Lu ◽  
Hong Wu

Background Online healthcare communities are changing the ways of physician-patient communication and how patients choose outpatient care physicians. Although a majority of empirical work has examined the role of online reviews in consumer decisions, less research has been done in health care, and endogeneity of online reviews has not been fully considered. Moreover, the important factor of physician online services has been neglected in patient decisions. Objective In this paper, we addressed the endogeneity of online reviews and examined the impact of online reviews and services on outpatient visits based on theories of reviews and channel effects. Methods We used a difference-in-difference approach to account for physician- and website-specific effects by collecting information from 474 physician homepages on two online health care communities. Results We found that the number of reviews was more effective in influencing patient decisions compared with the overall review rating. An improvement in reviews leads to a relative increase in physician outpatient visits on that website. There are channel effects in health care: online services complement offline services (outpatient care appointments). Results further indicate that online services moderate the relationship between online reviews and physician outpatient visits. Conclusions This study investigated the effect of reviews and channel effects in health care by conducting a difference-in-difference analysis on two online health care communities. Our findings provide basic research on online health care communities.


2003 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 346-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tonia Kandiero ◽  
Satish Wadhawan

This study supports the conventional wisdom that openness to trade is good for investment and economic growth. Whether this conclusion leaves space for institutional quality as a complimentary policy to determine the success of trade liberalization in Africa is the objective of this paper. The theoretical model and empirical analysis show how the behavior of government bureaucrats can be used to explain the impact on investment of the interaction between increased openness to trade and the quality of institutions. Empirical work is conducted using panel data observed over three periods: 1985-1990, 1990-1995, and 1995-2000.


2014 ◽  
pp. 88-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Syunyaev ◽  
L. Polishchuk

We study the impact of Russian regional governors’ rotation and their affiliation with private sector firms for the quality of investment climate in Russian regions. A theoretical model presented in the paper predicts that these factors taken together improve “endogenous” property rights under authoritarian regimes. This conclusion is confirmed empirically by using Russian regional data for 2002—2010; early in that period gubernatorial elections had been canceled and replaced by federal government’s appointments. This is an indication that under certain conditions government rotation is beneficial for economic development even when democracy is suppressed.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-241
Author(s):  
A. Carpio ◽  
G. Duro

AbstractUnstable growth phenomena in spatially discrete wave equations are studied. We characterize sets of initial states leading to instability and collapse and obtain analytical predictions for the blow-up time. The theoretical predictions are con- trasted with the numerical solutions computed by a variety of schemes. The behavior of the systems in the continuum limit and the impact of discreteness and friction are discussed.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kanika Mahajan

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) on farm sector wage rate. This identification strategy rests on the assumption that all districts across India would have had similar wage trends in the absence of the program. The author argues that this assumption may not be true due to non-random allocation of districts to the program’s three phases across states and different economic growth paths of the states post the implementation of NREGS. Design/methodology/approach – To control for overall macroeconomic trends, the author allows for state-level time fixed effects to capture the differences in growth trajectories across districts due to changing economic landscape in the parent-state over time. The author also estimates the expected farm sector wage growth due to the increased public work employment provision using a theoretical model. Findings – The results, contrary to the existing studies, do not find support for a significantly positive impact of NREGS treatment on private cultivation wage rate. The theoretical model also shows that an increase in public employment work days explains very little of the total growth in cultivation wage post 2004. Originality/value – This paper looks specifically at farm sector wage growth and the possible impact of NREGS on it, accounting for state specific factors in shaping farm wages. Theoretical estimates are presented to overcome econometric limitations.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 1486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Tobin ◽  
Adam Lavely ◽  
Sven Schmitz ◽  
Leonardo P. Chamorro

The dependence of temporal correlations in the power output of wind-turbine pairs on atmospheric stability is explored using theoretical arguments and wind-farm large-eddy simulations. For this purpose, a range of five distinct stability regimes, ranging from weakly stable to moderately convective, were investigated with the same aligned wind-farm layout used among simulations. The coherence spectrum between turbine pairs in each simulation was compared to theoretical predictions. We found with high statistical significance (p < 0.01) that higher levels of atmospheric instability lead to higher coherence between turbines, with wake motions reducing correlations up to 40%. This is attributed to higher dominance of atmospheric motions over wakes in strongly unstable flows. Good agreement resulted with the use of an empirical model for wake-added turbulence to predict the variation of turbine power coherence with ambient turbulence intensity (R 2 = 0.82), though other empirical relations may be applicable. It was shown that improperly accounting for turbine–turbine correlations can substantially impact power variance estimates on the order of a factor of 4.


1983 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole Shammas

The proportion of a household's budget spent on diet has commonly served as an important measure of material welfare. This paper pulls together data concerning trends in food expenditures for early modern England and draws comparisons with figures for later periods. The usefulness of wage assessments, a new source for estimating the proportion of outlays devoted to diet, is examined. The impact on food expenditures of new commodities and other dietary shifts is also explored. The findings call into question earlier estimates of the proportion of total expenditure devoted to food and drink in the pre-industrial period and the assumption that food expenditures are always inelastic.


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