Married Households Research Articles

Determinants of food security among rural households in southwestern Nigeria: USDA food security questionnaire core module approach

This study was carried out to estimate the extent of food security and its determinants among rural households in Nigeria. Data for this study was obtained from 180 rural households consisting of 1260 members through the use of a structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed with a descriptive technique and a less restrictive multinomial logistic regression model. The result found most rural households to be food insecure as they measure high on the food insecurity scale. Age, gender, marital status, access to credit, dependency ratio, household size, ownership of farmland and farming experience significantly influence food security categories. The study concluded that: female-headed married households were more food secure than male-headed households; an increase in age of household heads makes it more likely to be food secure, and so does access to credit facilities; conversely, an increase in family size and in the dependency ratio makes it less likely to be food secure. The study recommends that there should be provision and proper monitoring of credit facilities to small farmers in other to increase their scale of operation and improve their food security status. Also, adequate attention should be given to policy measures that address family planning in order to reduce the household size to a level the household heads can adequately cater for.

Investment Implications of the Rising and Falling Pattern of Marginal Tax Rates for Retirees

This article begins by explaining how income-based increases in Medicare premiums produce dramatic increases in marginal tax rates for retirees with relatively high levels of income. It then explains how the taxation of Social Security benefits causes most lower- and middle-income households to have marginal tax rates for a wide range of income after Social Security benefits begin that are either 150% or 185% of their tax bracket. By combining these two factors, the authors show that most retirees will have marginal tax rates in retirement that rise and fall frequently and sharply as their income increases. This article then explains how this rising and falling pattern of marginal tax rates should affect retired households’ withdrawal strategies from their financial portfolio, where withdrawal strategy is defined broadly to include Roth conversions. TOPICS:Wealth management, retirement, social security Key Findings • Due to income-based increases in Medicare premiums and the taxation of Social Security benefits, most retirees face marginal tax rates that rise and fall sharply as their income rises. • The marginal tax rates for retired households receiving Social Security benefits fall sharply when their income places them beyond the income level where 85% of Social Security benefits is taxable. • We encourage these single and married households to make Roth conversions to take advantage of the relatively low marginal tax rates that exist beyond this income level. However, the amount of funds that can be converted at these relatively low tax rates depends upon whether the household has begun Social Security benefits and whether it will be on Medicare two years hence.

Do Agricultural Package Programs Improve the Welfare of Rural People? Evidence from Smallholder Farmers in Ethiopia

The purpose of this paper is to assess the welfare status and analyze the impact of participation in farm package programs on the welfare of smallholder farmers. We used three round panel data of 789 households from the Eastern zone of Tigray, and the fixed effect instrumental variable method was employed in the estimation. The study found that consumption expenditure, income, and asset per capita of the households increased across the survey years. The participation of households in the integrated package programs has a positive and statistically significant impact on the consumption expenditure and calorie per adult equivalent, but not the income and asset per capita of the households. Also, affects the consumption expenditure per adult equivalent of the married households. To enhance the welfare of the beneficiaries, the provision of the package programs should align with the local resource endowment, focus on youth, widowed and divorced households and the government should prioritize and limit the number of packages that households can participate in.

Wives for the Wounded: Marriage Mediation for Japanese Disabled Veterans during World War II

Abstract Japan’s armed invasion of China in July 1937 catalyzed the creation of new welfare services for the rapidly escalating number of Japanese disabled veterans. Among those reforms was the emergence of public and private marriage mediation services that aimed to introduce potential brides to disabled veterans and create independent households for men with severe war injuries. Acting through the Greater Japan Disabled Veterans Association and Patriotic Women’s Association, the Japanese state established formal procedures for arranging such marriages. Concurrently, private matchmakers created marriage mediation services expressly for disabled veterans. Public and private marriage mediation efforts sought the multifaceted rehabilitation of disabled veterans and contributed to total war mobilization on the Japanese home front. In the process, wartime marriage mediation for disabled veterans reinforced contemporary social customs and gender norms by positioning women within married households to support their husbands. However, women possessed an extraordinary degree of personal agency because their consent was needed to produce marriages intended to benefit wounded servicemen and the war effort. This essay examines the origins of marriage mediation services for Japanese disabled veterans as well as popular wartime depictions of such endeavors and their female participants.

Factors determining smallholder farmers’ willingness to pay for a metal silo in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACTThe outbreak of devastating storage pests has rendered smallholder farmers' traditional storage practices ineffective. This study used single bound dichotomous choice contingent valuation to examine factors determining smallholder farmers' willingness to pay (WTP) for a metal silo, a new and improved storage technology in Zimbabwe. Data were collected using structured questionnaires from 249 randomly selected households in Makoni and Shamva Districts. Logit results showed that storage loss, quantity of non-food crops, equipment value, vegetable income, participation in informal activities, and household head's age and marital status significantly influenced WTP for metal silos. The amount of grain lost in storage positively influenced farmers' WTP, suggesting that current storage practices are not effective against storage losses. Income variables, except the value of equipment, showed a positive influence on WTP for a metal silo implying that increasing the household's income eases financial constraints that could impede investments in the silo technology. The study recommends the adoption of metal silos to curb storage losses and improve household food security. Diversification of agriculture and provision of credit are recommended to increase WTP for metal silos. Development agents promoting the technology should target married and young households for sustainability, without marginalising their counterparts.

Spousal Labor Supply, Caregiving, and the Value of Disability Insurance

For married couples, spousal labor supply can act as a household insurance mechanism against one spouse’s earnings shock. This paper evaluates the insurance value of the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program among married households when wives face a time allocation problem between market hours and spousal care following their husbands’ disability. Using an event study approach, I find that while there is a sizable increase in wives’ working hours after their husbands’ job displacement, wives’ labor supply responses to their husbands’ disability are small, and instead, a considerable amount of time is spent in spousal care. I develop and estimate a dynamic structural model of married households and find that incorporating time loss due to spousal care increases the insurance value of SSDI relative to its costs. Furthermore, policy reforms such as supplementary caregiving benefits can improve social welfare.

On households and unemployment insurance

We study unemployment insurance in a framework where the main source of heterogeneity among agents is the type of household they live in: some agents live alone while others live with their spouses as a family. Our exercise is motivated by the fact that married individuals can rely on spousal income to smooth labor market shocks, while singles cannot. We extend a version of the standard incomplete‐markets model to include two‐agent households and calibrate it to the US economy with special emphasis on matching differences in labor market transitions across gender and marital status as well as aggregate wealth moments. Our central finding is that changes to the current unemployment insurance program are valued differently by married and single households. In particular, a more generous unemployment insurance reduces the welfare of married households significantly more than that of singles and vice versa. We show that this result is driven by the amount of self‐insurance existing in married households, and thus, we highlight the interplay between self‐ and government‐provided insurance and its implication for policy.

Do Family Structure and Functioning Matter for Ethical and Other Values?

Because family and the beliefs and values of people are important aspects of economic institutions, family structure and functioning might affect the values of family members. Four specific types of values are relevant to economic performance: ethical values, moral values, democratic values, and egalitarian values. Data from the U.S. wave of the World Values Survey are used to determine if there is a correlation between values and the structure and functioning of families. Generally, traditional family structures—married households—and households with a high level of family functioning have higher ethical and moral values than other household structures and households with weak levels of family functioning. However, the relationship between family and democratic and egalitarian values of individuals is more nuanced. The findings point to the continuing importance of the family as an economic institution in society.

Determinants of Household Dietary Diversity in Bangladesh

Dietary diversity is considered crucial for household welfare and also for carrying out other development activities. The emerging interest in household dietary diversity against dietary quantity presents an opportunity to estimate household food security. Based on secondary data, probit regression model was used to estimate the determinants of household dietary diversity in Bangladesh. The result suggests that household size, literacy of household head, total amount of land, married household head, total amount of remittance received and income of household head were major determinants in attainment of high dietary diversity. Government policies and intervention programs targeting the above variables may improve household dietary diversity which in turn may improve household food security.

Trends in Adolescent Birth Rates in California: Examining the Influence of Community Characteristics Through Geographic and Temporal Analysis.

The aim of the article was to understand community-level factors associated with the decline in the adolescent birth rate (ABR) in California from 2000 to2014. We consolidated multiple data sources at the level of the Medical Service Study Area (MSSA), a federally recognized subcounty geographic unit (N= 497). We used ordinary least squares regression to examine predictors of change in the ABR at the MSSA level over three periods of notable change in California's ABR: 2000-2002, 2006-2008, and 2012-2014. Variables assessed include geographic density, change in sociodemographic and economic characteristics, and change in the availability of publicly funded sexual health services. The ABR declined more in urban than rural MSSAs. In the earlier period, growth in the black, Hispanic, and foreign-born populations, unemployment, and receipt of public assistance were associated with smaller declines in the ABR. Growth in the share of married households and high school completion were associated with larger declines in the ABR. In the later period, growth in public assistance receipt was associated with smaller declines in the ABR, whereas growth in high school completion and college attendance were associated with larger declines. Decline in the ABR was steeper in areas that began offering publicly funded long-acting contraception to adolescents. Rural-urban differences were no longer significant after controlling for change in the provision of long-acting contraception. Identifying the independent contributions of changes in sociodemographic, economic, and service characteristics to changes in the ABR supports the development of programs and policies that are more responsive to the communities they serve.

Households\u2019 age, country of birth, and marital status, stronger predictor variables than education in the prevalence of dental sealants, restorations, and caries among US children 5\u201319\u2009years of age, NHANES 2005\u20132010

BackgroundThe aim of this study is to use data representative of the U.S. population to determine if households (HHs) age, birth country, and marital status, are strong predictors as HHs education for dental sealants, restorations, and caries in children 5 to 19 years of age.MethodsA cross sectional analysis was performed with oral health data from three waves of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 2005 to 2010). The sample size consisted of children 5 to 19 years of age (n = 9151) and households > 18 years of age (n = 31,034). Dependent variables included the number of children with dental sealants, restorations, and caries. HHs independent variables consisted of gender, age, race, country of birth, HHs education level, marital status, and HHs spouse education. Multivariate regression analysis models were adjusted for HHs citizenship, health insurance, family size, and children age categories.ResultsThe prevalence of children 5–19 years of age with dental sealants, restorations, and caries was 31.3, 43, and 15.8% respectively. The odds of children having sealants were higher among HHs with a college education or above OR 2.05 [1.54.-2.73] vs. HHs with a < 9th grade, in HHs ages 39–49 (OR 1.78 [1.41–2.24) vs. 18–29 years of age, and in HHs spouses with a college education and above OR 1.71 [1.14–2.56] vs. HHs with a < 9th grade. The odds of having at least one restored tooth were higher in children from HHs born in Mexico 1.74 [1.44–2.10] vs. US born. The highest odds for caries were among children from HHs that were never married 1.91 [1.47–2.48] vs. married HHs. In HHs with a college education the odds for caries in children were 0.31 (0.22–0.43) for college and above, and 0.78 (0.60–1.01) for some college.ConclusionsThe odds of children having dental sealants were higher in HHs with a college education, however, HHs ages 30–49 provided higher odds for sealants than spouses with college education. HHs birth place increased the odds of children with restorations more than HHs education. Children from HHs that never married had higher odds of experiencing dental caries. Recognizing the impact of these HHs characteristics could augment efforts in the prevention of adverse oral health outcomes in U.S. children.Households’ age, country of birth, and marital status, stronger predictor variables than education in the prevalence of dental sealants, restorations, and caries among US children 5–19 years of age, NHANES 2005–2010.

The Impact of Auto Portability on Preserving Retirement Savings Currently Lost to 401(k) Cashout Leakage

Many of the perceived limitations of 401(k) plans were partially dealt with via previous automation practices encouraged by the Pension Protection Act of 2006, including automatic enrollment, auto-escalation, and the utilization of target-date funds as investment options, all of which served to increase participation rates, encourage savings, and optimize asset allocations. Significantly, no effective solution has been implemented to address the problem of 401(k) cashout leakage, which occurs post-termination, where each year approximately 40 percent of terminated participants elect to prematurely cash out 15 percent of plan assets. For 2015, EBRI estimates that $92.4 billion was lost due to leakages from cashouts, representing a serious problem that affects the potential of 401(k) plans to produce adequate income replacement in retirement. This Issue Brief summarizes EBRI research analyzing the impact of auto portability, where a participant’s account from a former employer’s retirement plan would be automatically combined with their active account in a new employer’s plan. This would help keep the defined contribution (DC) assets in the retirement system and — in theory — reduce leakage from cashouts upon employment termination. Our research found that: • Considering auto portability as a standalone policy initiative, we project the present value of additional accumulations over 40 years resulting from “partial” auto portability (participant balances less than $5,000 adjusted for inflation) would be $1,509 billion, and the value would be $1,987 billion under “full” auto portability (all participant balances). Under partial auto portability, those currently 25–34 are projected to have an additional $659 billion, increasing to $847 billion for full auto portability. • Auto portability produces significant decreases in retirement deficits for specific demographic segments, ranging from 13 percent for single females to 29 percent for married households where the female dies first. For households with 21–30 years of future eligibility, the decreases range from 21 percent for single females to 38 percent for married households where the female dies first. • Auto portability, when combined with automatic-enrollment-enabled defined contribution plans, results in significantly higher defined benefit (DB) plan generosity parameters needed for equivalence, suggesting that auto portability could assist in the ongoing shift from DB to DC plans. • When considered in tandem with other legislative initiatives that expand workplace access to retirement plans, we measured the incremental impact of auto portability. An analysis that combined auto portability with auto- IRAs showed that, in aggregate, the Retirement Savings Shortfalls (RSS) would be reduced by an additional $293 billion for a total reduction of $697 billion or 18.2 percent of the current deficit. This analysis suggests that while policy to expand retirement plan coverage can significantly impact aggregate savings shortfalls, an auto portability initiative that reduces plan leakage can materially augment such efforts.

The role of evolving marital preferences in growing income inequality

In this paper, we describe mating patterns in the USA from 1964 to 2017 and measure the impact of changes in marital preferences on between-household income inequality. We rely on the recent literature on the econometrics of matching models to estimate complementarity parameters of the household production function. Our structural approach allows us to measure sorting along multiple dimensions and to effectively disentangle changes in marital preferences and in demographics, addressing concerns that affect results from existing literature. We answer the following questions: Has assortativeness increased over time? Along which dimensions? To what extent can the shifts in marital preferences explain inequality trends? We find that, after controlling for other observables, assortative mating in education has become stronger. Moreover, if mating patterns had not changed since 1971, the 2017 Gini coefficient between married households would be 6% lower. We conclude that about 25% of the increase in between-household inequality is due to changes in marital preferences. Increased assortativeness in education positively contributes to the rise in inequality, but only modestly.

Economic Hardship, Financial Distress, and Marital Quality: The Role of Relational Aggression

The model of economic hardship (Conger et al. 1990) guided the current longitudinal study examining whether perceptions of relational aggression (love withdrawal/social sabotage) mediated the relationship between financial distress and marital quality concurrently (2009) and over 2 subsequent years (2010 & 2011). A modified dyadic longitudinal mediation model explored associations among 335 two-parent, heterosexual, married households following the recent economic recession. Data from three waves (2009, 2010, & 2011) of the Flourishing Families Project revealed that perceptions of social sabotage and love withdrawal partially mediated the relationships between both spouses’ financial distress and both spouses’ marital quality in 2009, but not in 2010 or 2011. Other findings, including indirect effects, and implications for research and practice are discussed.

Credit card delinquency: How much is the Internet to blame?

This study examines whether Internet access makes households more vulnerable to credit card delinquencies. It is presumed, for a variety of reasons, that online accessibility increases opportunities to spend more. By using the Survey of Consumer Finance and the probit model, this paper shows a positive relationship between Internet access and credit card delinquencies. At the sample mean, the probability of delinquency increases by 0.474 for households with Internet access compared to those with no access. This result is robust to an alternative definition of delinquency. However, the impact is not uniform across different household subgroups, and the results suggest that with Internet access, lower income households, male households, White households, non-senior households, and married households are more likely to become delinquent.

How Retirement Readiness Varies by Gender and Family Status: A Retirement Savings Shortfall Assessment of Gen Xers

Measuring retirement security — or retirement income adequacy — is an extremely important topic. In recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis on the retirement income adequacy of widows and single women. EBRI’s Retirement Security Projection Model® (RSPM) can assess the size of households’ retirement deficit by modeling Retirement Savings Shortfalls (RSS). In this Issue Brief, an RSPM® module classifies households by the following gender and marital statuses: single female, widow, single male, and widower. Key findings are: The retirement deficit — or additional savings required to meet basic needs in retirement — is higher for both widows and single females: - The average RSS is $18,476 per individual for married households where the female dies first (widowers). - The average RSS is $22,783 for married households where the male dies first (widows). - The average RSS is $37,690 for single males. - The average RSS is $72,883 for single females. - When households for which no shortfall is projected are excluded from the analysis, the average size of the shortfall is $76,896 for widows vs. $82,937 for widowers. Single females in the lowest pre-retirement wage quartile have an average RSS of $110,412 vs. those in the highest quartile with an average RSS of only $28,951. For single males, the gender discrepancy in average RSS goes from $29,736 for those in the lowest wage quartile to $12,465 for those in the highest quartile. Not only are single females more likely to have retirement deficits, their retirement deficits are likely to be significantly larger than those of other cohorts. - Single females are the only cohort with at least 50 percent of households having a deficit. - The median RSS for this group is $19,900. - 10 percent of single females have an RSS of at least $222,592. Nearly half (48 percent) of single females at the lowest income quartile have at least a $100,000 RSS (connoting serious potential financial complications in retirement). - This compares to a third (33 percent) of single males and 42 percent of widows. - Even in the highest income quartile 13 percent of single females have an RSS of at least $100,000, vs. 7 percent for single males, 4 percent for widows, and 3 percent for widowers. Lack of eligibility for participation in a defined contribution (DC) plan significantly increases savings shortfalls. - Single females with no future eligibility in a DC plan have an average RSS of $97,325 vs. the $24,486 average RSS of those with at least 21–30 years of future eligibility. o - DC plan eligibility. - The discrepancy in average RSS between widows and widowers with no future DC plan eligibility is $6,529. In contrast, future eligibility in DC plans can dramatically reduce serious potential financial complications in retirement. - 42 percent of female households with no future DC plan eligibility have an RSS of at least $100,000 compared with 11 percent of those with 21–30 years of future eligibility. - 13 percent of widows with no future DC plan eligibility have an RSS of at least $100,000, vs. 3 percent with 21–30 years of future eligibility. Auto portability — where a participant’s account from a former employer’s retirement plan would be automatically combined with their active account in a new employer’s plan — can also have a large impact. - For those with 21–30 years of future DC eligibility, auto portability.

Early Adoption of an Improved Household Energy System in Urban Rwanda.

Cooking with solid fuels and inefficient cookstoves has adverse consequences for health, environment, and human well-being. Despite the promise of improved cookstoves to reduce these impacts, adoption rates are relatively low. Using a 2-wave sample of 144 households from the baseline and first midline of an ongoing 4-year randomized controlled trial in Rwanda, we analyze the drivers and associations of early adoption of a household energy intervention marketed by a private sector firm. Households sign an annual contract to purchase sustainably produced biomass pellets and lease a fan micro-gasification cookstove with verified emissions reductions in laboratory settings. Using difference-in-differences and fixed effects estimation techniques, we examine the association between take-up of the improved cooking system and household fuel expenditures, health outcomes, and time use for primary cooks. Thirty percent of households adopted the pellet and improved cookstove system. Adopting households had more assets, lower per capita total expenditures and cooking fuel expenditures, and higher per capita hygiene expenditures. Households with married household heads and female cooks were significantly more likely to adopt. Adjusting for confounders, we find significant reduction in primary cooks' systolic blood pressure, self-reported prevalence of shortness of breath, an indicator of respiratory illness, time spent cooking, and household expenditures on charcoal. Our findings have implications for marketing of future clean fuel and improved cookstove programs in urban settings or where stoves and fuel are purchased. Analysis of follow-up surveys will allow for estimation of long-term impacts of adoption of interventions involving pellets and fan micro-gasification cookstoves.

How do tax progressivity and household heterogeneity affect Laffer curves?

How much additional tax revenue can the government generate by increasing the level of labor income taxes? In this paper, we argue that the degree of tax progressivity is a quantitatively important determinant of the answer to this question. To make this point, we develop a large scale overlapping generations model with single and married households facing idiosyncratic income risk, extensive and intensive margins of labor supply, as well as endogenous accumulation of human capital through labor market experience. We calibrate the model to U.S. macro, micro, and tax data and characterize the labor income tax Laffer curve for various degrees of tax progressivity. We find that the peak of the U.S. Laffer curve is attained at an average labor income tax rate of 58 % . This peak (the maximal tax revenues the government can raise) increases by 7 % if the current progressive tax code is replaced with a flat labor income tax. Replacing the current U.S. tax system with one that has Denmark' s progressivity would lower the peak by 8 % . We show that modeling the extensive margin of labor supply and endogenous human capital accumulation is crucial for these findings. With joint taxation of married couples (as in the U.S.), higher tax progressivity leads to significantly lower labor force participation of married women and substantially higher labor force participation of single women, an effect that is especially pronounced when future wages of females depend positively on past labor market experience.

문화적 여가활동의 시간사용에 대한 결정요인 연구 : 기혼가구의 가구특성을 중심으로

문화적 여가활동의 시간사용에 대한 결정요인 연구 : 기혼가구의 가구특성을 중심으로

The Absence of Income Effects at the Onset of Child Tax Benefits

We study the effects of quasi-random variation in unearned income on labor force participation, earnings, business income, capital gains realizations, retirement savings, and unemployment compensation. To identify these income effects, we exploit an age discontinuity in the federal tax system: parents whose children are born in December of year t-1 can claim child-related tax benefits for that year, whereas otherwise-similar parents whose children are born in January of year t cannot. We use a panel of administrative tax data comprised of the universe of married households with a child born in December or January in years 2001 through 2013. Over this period, the average child tax benefit was about $1,800. Using a regression discontinuity research design, we find approximately zero treatment effects on the intensive and extensive margin for all outcome variables studied. Our results are consistent with precise zero income effects and suggest that households do not learn about (and respond to) child tax benefits in the first year they are claimed.