Microdata Base Research Articles

Income or educational attainment: which is more effective in the fight against overweight? Evidence from Spain and Andalusia.

Considered the epidemic of the 21st century by the WHO, obesity is a global problem that is on the rise and will continue to increase in the coming years. Spain and Andalusia, in particular, are no exception to this pathology, which has tripled since the 1970s, representing a public health challenge. The aim of this study is to analyse the socioeconomic determinants of this pathology, with special emphasis on answering the question of what has a greater influence on overweight, education level, or income. For this purpose, we have used the European Survey of Health in Spain (ESHS-2020), a microdata base, with a total of 22,072 valid individual observations (of which 2,820 belong to the Andalusian population). Results we obtain in our estimations of qualitative response models reveal that, although both income and educational attainment could be effective in the fight against overweight, the social gradient of this health problem is greater with respect to educational attainment. Additionally, there are many other variables and other factors related to the individual's overweight (mental health, subjective state of health, oral health, among others) which are much less explored and which must be considered in health policies to combat this disease.

Análise dos determinantes da utilização do Programa Farmácia Popular do Brasil

Objetivo: O estudo analisa os determinantes de o indivíduo participar do Programa Farmácia Popular do Brasil (PFPB). Métodos: Utilizou-se a base de microdados da Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde em 2013, empregando o modelo Logit. Resultados: Observou-se que, conforme a idade do indivíduo aumenta, maior a probabilidade do uso de medicamentos pelo programa. Ademais, ter maior escolaridade, pertencer à classe de renda alta e possuir planos de saúde diminui essa probabilidade. Verificou-se, ainda, que a percepção de saúde de cada indivíduo não altera a probabilidade de uso do PFPB, mas o diagnóstico de doenças crônicas é importante fator explicativo para o uso de medicamentos. Conclusão: A utilização do programa está relacionada com fatores socioeconômicos e de morbidade, demonstrando a importância de políticas de assistência farmacêutica no processo saúde/doença, principalmente para indivíduos inseridos em baixas classes de renda e com doença crônica ou de longa duração. Os resultados permitem que os gestores públicos tenham uma maior compreensão do uso do programa pela população, possibilitando melhor direcionamento, ampliação e qualificação do acesso aos medicamentos.

Are there urban-rural gaps in Spaniards financial knowledge?

Our objective is to analyze whether there are urban-rural gaps in financial knowledge of Spanish people. For this purpose, we use data from the Survey of Financial Competences conducted by the Bank of Spain and the Spanish National Securities Market Commission on a representative sample of the Spanish population aged between 18 and 79 during the last quarter of 2016 and the first half of 2017. From this microdata base, we estimate qualitative response models in which each of the dimensions of financial knowledge (inflation, compound interest and risk diversification) acts as dependent variable on a set of explanatory variables. Among the latter is one that measures whether the respondent lives in an urban or rural area. Our results reveal that there are urban-rural gaps in the financial knowledge of Spaniards over 39 years old. We also find conclusive results about the effect of other socioeconomic factors on the financial knowledge of Spaniards. Thus, the probability of being financially illiterate is higher for those who are women and have low income and low educational attainment. Meanwhile, being born in another country, self-confidence, and contracting financial products are all of them factors that have positive implications for financial knowledge of Spanish population. • We analyze the existence of urban-rural gaps in Spaniards’ financial knowledge; issue which is not sufficiently explored. • As an additional novelty, we conduct our analysis by looking at three different age groups (18-39; 40-64; 65-79). • Our results reveal that there are urban-rural gaps in Spaniards’ financial knowledge. • We also shed light on factors influencing Spaniards’ financial knowledge beyond living in rural or urban areas.

Diferenças e aproximações dos leitores da imprensa nacional e regional

A interiorização da economia no Brasil e a política de descentralização das verbas publicitárias oficiais têm despertado maior interesse dos pesquisadores sobre a mídia regional ou local. Mas estudos acadêmicos costumam se valer de levantamentos nos quais a realidade de regiões mais ricas e populosas é projetada como um retrato de toda a mídia brasileira. Com acesso à base de microdados, será apresentado um recorte sobre os leitores de jornais impressos dentro da Pesquisa Brasileira de Mídia (PBM) nas edições de 2014 e 2015, publicadas pela Secretaria de Comunicação Social da Presidência da República. Inédita por sua representatividade, a PBM revela os hábitos de consumo de mídias de 18.312 brasileiros. Para este artigo, optou-se por um corpus com 4.064 e 3.766 entrevistas, respectivamente. A presente análise evidencia que há distinções significativas na forma como os leitores consomem mídias nos principais centros urbanos e fora deles.

Decisions about Postsecondary Education, their Returns in Colombia

This study analyzes the economic returns to schooling decisions made by high school graduates in Colombia. We wanted to verify if the economic returns (wages) obtained by newly postsecondary education graduates compensate the economic and psychological investment they made in order to get that academic degree. To answer that question, we estimated these economic returns for each type of postsecondary degree available in Colombia (technical education, technological education, undergraduate studies, graduate studies) by origin of the institution (public or private). Our methodological strategy includes the generation of a micro-data base that contains agents’ socio-economic background and also their individual labor market outcomes. Because agents with very similar characteristics and the same schooling decisions might get different economic returns from education, we considered as part of our empirical strategy the inclusion of an approximation of agents’ cognitive abilities.

Top Income: A Distribution Analysis for Liberal Professions, Entrepreneurs and Employees - A Microanalysis based on the German Income Tax Statistics

The distribution of societal resources is of high societal, economic and social policy importance. What is missing are reliable data above all about high income. This study will contribute to a well-founded analysis of high income for self employed – as (liberal) professions and entrepreneurs – and as employees, central groups of the labour market and the society at all. Before the background of requirements to a database and given official and non-official data sources we characterize our microdata base, the wage and income tax statistic 1995, a population statistic , which in particular is well-suited for the analysis ogf high income. We describe the used economic income concept and our 10% sample with about 3 Million anonymized tax records. For the first time we then present distributional and re-distributional results based on all income areas and for alternative high income thresholds – millionares and 200% of the mean – for professions, entrepreneurs and employees.

When Do People Demand Services? A Microsimulation Model for Alternative Shopping Hours with Data from the German Time Use Survey, ServSim

The objective of this study is the empirical founded analysis of the daily demand for service activities, over the hours of the day. Our microdata base consists of time-diaries of the nation wide Time Use Survey 2001/2002 of the German Federal Statistical Office. The frame for this analysis are new shopping hours regulations in Germany. After an illustration of the historical development of shopping hours in Germany and after a short discussion of the liberalization of shopping hours we describe the daily structure of the demand for service activities. We analyze the demand structure for two alternative scenarios and for important socio-economic groups of the society on the basis of our new microsimulation model ServSim. Background of these two scenarios are population projections for the years 2010 and 2020 which were conducted by the Federal Statistical Office Germany. These projections were used to adjust (reweight) the data by a 'static-aging'-approach. The multivariate explanation of the demand for service activities inconducted. The descriptive results, the microeconometric estimation outcomes and the Microsimulation results show clear distinctions of the daily demand in particular against the background of socio-economic groups of the society.

Estimating constant-quality capitalization rates and capitalization effects of below market financing

Using data on 403 property transactions in Stockholm in the early 1990s, we illustrate how a microdata base can be used to compute 'constant-quality' cap rate series. We show a wide disparity between apartment and commercial series so calculated and series computed as simple averages of individual property cap rates. In the process, we find evidence of full capitalization of below-market financing in apartment prices.

Estimating Constant-Quality Capitalization Rates and Capitalization Effects of Below-Market Financing

Using data on 403 property transactions in Stockholm in the early 1990s, we illustrate how a microdata base can be used to compute constant quality cap rate series. We show a wide disparity between apartment and commercial series so calculated and series computed as simple averages of individual property cap rates. In the process, we find evidence of full capitalization of below-market financing in apartment prices.

Preferred vs. Actual Working Hours - A Ten Years Paneleconometric Analysis for Professions, Entrepreneurs and Employees in Germany

Labour market dynamics according the individual working hour tension (preferred working hours minus actual working hours) of active people with focus on the self-employed, as professions and entrepreneurs, and employees are investigated in our study. The individual longitudinal analysis based on panel data allows us to follow the individual process of working time preferences and actual outcomes in its individual convergence/divergence balancing process in the course of time. Our microanalytic and paneleconometric results (with pooled, one and two factor fixed and random effects models) quantify the working hour tension developments and its determinants in a decade from the mid 80s to the mid 90s. Microdata base is the German Socio-Economic Panel with ten waves from 1985 to 1994. Finally, we discuss impacts of our results for labour market strategies and a targetedeconomic and social policy.

Equivalence Scales Based on Revealed Preference Consumption Expenditures. The Case of Germany / Äquivalenzskalen auf der Basis von Konsumausgaben offenbarter Präferenzen. Ergebnisse für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Summary Equivalence scales are a prerequisite for any economic well-being comparison with measures on income distribution, inequality and poverty. This paper provides new equivalence scales based on revealed preference consumption microdata. We concentrate on single expenditure Engel equations and on a complete demand system, the extended linear expenditure system (ELES), with all interdependencies of a full market basket. Microdata base is the newest availabe West German Income and Consumption Sample of 1983 with more than 42,000 households. Our results with differences regarding the goods' basket and household composition effects are compared to other discussed consumption, expert, and subjective based equivalence scales.

Current Wealth Constraints on the Housing Demand of Young Owners

In addition to generating housing services, owner-occupied housing units constitute a lumpy, risky asset in household portfolios. Analysis of these dual consumption/investment roles suggests the permanent wealth budget constraint in housing demand models should be decomposed into permanent returns from human capital and current net worth. For young owners, current net worth is hypothesized to be the dominant wealth component determining the quantity of housing demanded. Using a Canadian microdata base, evidence is found that net worth does provide both greater explanatory power and higher elasticities than labor earnings. Copyright 1990 by MIT Press.

Tobacco consumption pattern: A demographic analysis

This research stemmed from two related but conflicting standpoints. The first is a social concern resulting from the fact that smoking is a health hazard. The second is the fact that tobacco growers and producers are putting every effort possible to promote their product despite the fact that smoking is ruled a major cause of lung cancer. The objective of the research was then to define, empirically, any relationship that may exist between tobacco consumption and a number of demographic and socioeconomic factors. To this end, the authors used a micro-data of the 1973 Consumption Expenditure Interview Survey involving 10,105 consumer units and about 2,500 items conducted by the Bureau of the Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The data pertaining to the 5,034 smoking consumer units identified were subjected to multiple regression analysis using tobacco consumption expenditure as the dependent variable and about 60 other economic and demographic attributes or possible explanatory variables as independent variables. However, except for the dependent variable, income, and family size, the rest of the variables were treated as dummy variables for specific groups of interest as was necessary. As usually expected with cross-sectional data, R square was low. Nonetheless, it was observed that several socioeconomic factors affect significantly consumption of tobacco products. They include level of education attained, family size, race, marital status, geographic region, location of residence, occupation, and industry of employment. To mention just a few of these relationships, other things being equal: (1) Heads of a consumer unit or spouses with college education, blacks, and married couples spend less on tobacco consumption; (2) Tobacco consumption and family size are positively correlated; and (3) Consumer units living in central cities of large metropolitan areas tend to spend relatively more on tobacco consumption than their counterparts living in other areas. Chi-square analysis was used to determine tobacco consumption patterns of various demographic groups. The results are consistent with the ones arrived at using multiple regression analysis. It must be pointed out, however, that these findings represent merely symptomatic phenomena of smoking behavior of the population. Literature on health and marketing has tried to identify the real causes and effects of smoking. However, their findings are still inconclusive. That is, in fact, the reason why the government and consumer advocates and tobacco industry cannot agree even in their honest debate. It is hoped that the results of statistical analysis using a large-scale micro-data base such as this will shed more light on smoking behavior when subjected to more advanced techniques of analysis so that policymakers can utilize the findings in their public or private decisions. To this end, the authors plan to employ discriminant analysis by taking smoking and nonsmoking consumer units as the subfiles of interest. They also plan to analyze the Consumption Expenditure Interview Data for I984 so that a comparative analysis can be made between the two years.

The Microdynamics of Farm Structural Change in North America: The Canadian Experience and Canada‐U.S.A. Comparisons

Large gross flows of entry into and exit from agriculture combined with paths of expansion and contraction by continuing farmers produce the modest but persistent net changes in the economic concentration of agriculture observed in Canada and the adjacent states of the northern United States. Relatively minor proportional changes in these gross flows can produce major proportional changes in net rates of structural change which are observed from one census to the next. Between 1976 and 1981, for example, there was a small net decline (5.9%) in the number of Canadian farm operators from 337,782 to 317,758 which resulted from 29.7% of the 1976 farm operators (100,325) exiting from agriculture and 25.3% of the 1981 farm operators (80,301) who entered agriculture during this five-year interval. Imagine a set of circumstances that would moderately increase the exit rate and modestly decrease the entry rate; the result would be a rapid net decline in farm numbers akin to the rural exodus of the 1950s. Entry, exit, and farm operator mobility flows shape the process of economic concentration and the accompanying reorganization of farm enterprises, such as an increased use of hired, nonfamily labor. A microdata base which can trace these gross flows is a prerequisite for understanding structural change in modem agriculture. Statistics Canada has developed what is perhaps the most advanced agricultural microdata base currently available to researchers. Files from the agricultural censuses for 1966, 1971, 1976, and 1981 have been linked in order to follow paths of contraction, stability, or expansion of individual farmers over time. Individual files from the general census of population for 1971 and 1981 have also been linked to files in the census of agriculture. Factors such as education and the total input of labor and income by farm operator families can then be linked to farm variables in order to deepen our understanding of the changing structure of modern agriculture.

Union dues and wage premiums

This study explores whether union wage premiums reflect compensating differences or noncompetitive rents. It is argued that if (1) there exists substantial dues variability, and (2) there is a positive wage-dues relation among union workers, at least part of the observed union premium is noncompetitive. Empirically, these two conditions are substantiated both within and across industries using the PSID microdata base. On average, 44 percent of the overall union premium is attributable to noncompetitive sources.