Ownership Of Durable Goods Research Articles

Health and the Megacity: Urban Congestion, Air Pollution, and Birth Outcomes in Brazil.

We studied the health effects of economic development in heavily urbanized areas, where congestion poses a challenge to environmental conditions. We employed detailed data from air pollution and birth records around the metropolitan area of São Paulo, Brazil, between 2002 and 2009. During this period, the megacity experienced sustained growth marked by the increases in employment rates and ownership of durable goods, including automobiles. While better economic conditions are expected to improve infant health, air pollution that accompanies it is expected to do the opposite. To untangle these two effects, we focused on episodes of thermal inversion—meteorological phenomena that exogenously lock pollutants closer to the ground—to estimate the causal effects of in utero exposure to air pollution. Auxiliary results confirmed a positive relationship between thermal inversions and several air pollutants, and we ultimately found that exposure to inversion episodes during the last three months of pregnancy led to sizable reductions in birth weight and increases in the incidence of preterm births. Increased pollution exposure induced by inversions also has a significant impact over fetal survival as measured by the size of live-birth cohorts.

Non-contributory pension programs and frailty of older adults: Evidence from Mexico.

Non-contributory pension programs in the developing world seek to provide older adults with an income that may improve their health and wellbeing in old age by enabling access to health care and better nutrition. There is no previous evidence of the effects of non-contributory pensions on frailty, a comprehensive measure of health and well-being of the oldest old. We aimed to estimate the effects of non-contributory pension programs on frailty of older adults in the state of Yucatan, Mexico. We use rich panel data, including objective markers and self-reported assessments of health and well-being, for 944 adults at least 70 years of age in two communities of Yucatan, Mexico. The first wave was collected in 2008; the second wave was collected in 2010, 18 months after implementation of a monthly state pension in one community and 12 months after a federal pension paid every two months in the other. We found the state pension led to a statistically significant decrease in the severity of frailty for women, but the federal pension was associated with an increase. We found no statistically significant change in the frailty index for men in either community. Among explanations for these findings are monthly payments being more likely to be spent on health care, medicines, and more regular food expenditures, enabling women who previously lacked independent means of support to increase their longer-term health. The federal program paid every two months led to irregular patterns of food expenditure and increased ownership of durable goods but had no effects on health care utilization, subsequently leading to deterioration in longer-term health for women.

Динамика социально-экономического положения массовых слоёв населения России: 2003–2018 гг.

The article shows that the drop in nominal incomes of the population in the last two years has come to a stop, although their real growth is seen only in a relatively narrow segment of the population, mainly representatives of households without dependents. This situation is reflected in the public consciousness. Self-assessments of their material situation by Russians, having improved markedly after the end of the economic crisis, remain unchanged in the last two years, and the number of those who consider their material situation to be poor or deteriorating is still significantly greater than the number of those who consider it good or improving. At the same time, although the standard of living of the majority of Russians decreased compared to the pre-crisis period, this decrease has not been catastrophic, which largely mitigates negative perception of their situation by the population. The article also demonstrates that the living standards of Russians in the so-called Putin era have changed qualitatively: real incomes have increased dramatically, the ownership of durable goods in households has largely expanded (including the appearance of cars and different gadgets), and the material environment, with which Russians constantly deal with in their daily lives, has become much more diverse and complex. These changes were accompanied by improvements in the living conditions of Russians and, at the same time, the transformation of credit load into a norm of living. At the same time, process of un-peasantness of the Russian village has taken place, which had not only positive effect (in particular, reduced workload in the subsidiary farms), but also negative (for example, a decrease in the safety margin for rural residents) consequences. These changes are so large that they will lead to an essential transformation of the entire Russian society.

Socioeconomic Classification of the Working-Age Brazilian Population: A Joint Latent Class Analysis Using Social Class and Asset-Based Perspectives

This paper presents and applies a methodology of socioeconomic classification that integrates asset- and social class approaches. We employ data from the 2013 Brazilian National Household Survey and use latent class analysis to identify clusters and classify the working population. With regard to social class the Brazilian occupations are classified based on the European Socioeconomic Classification (ESeC) schema and an indicator of employment status. As for household wealth, we use the items related to household condition, ownership of durable goods and access to public services with the highest discriminatory power. We also make use of variables that account for the Brazilian spatial and socio-demographic heterogeneity. We found four clusters which we term latent socioeconomic stratum (LSeS). When compared we found an ordered pattern from the best-off LSeS (1) to the worst-off (4) with respect to household wealth and ESeC classes. Nevertheless, although the class composition of each LSeS reveals a distinct concentration of specific ESeC classes, all classes are present in each LSeS. Controlling for social class, differences in household wealth are more marked between LSeS than between social classes within the same LSeS. Hence, the methodology unveils the latent socioeconomic strata, reveals a class schema for each stratum and points out potential stratum fractions within them. The results were validated using variables external to the model, namely household food security status and years of schooling. The external validation revealed the same ordered pattern and the presence of stratum fractions.

Consumption Smoothing and Frequency of Benefit Payments of Cash Transfer Programs.

We analyze two noncontributory Mexican pension programs for the elderly. Both paid similar amounts, but one paid monthly while the other paid every two months. The Life Cycle Hypothesis suggests frequency of benefits payments should not affect consumption smoothing, but we find the monthly program was more effective in smoothing food expenditure. It also increased doctor visits and reduced the incidence of hunger spells. Under the bimonthly program, expenditures on food significantly decline between paychecks but ownership of durable goods increased. This suggests the importance of payment frequency in social programs.

Effect of ageing on the ownership of durable goods

AbstractI analyse how ageing affects the demand for non‐housing durable goods. Based on the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, individual characteristics, cohort and time effects can explain most of the age variation in the ownership and purchase of durable goods. A life‐cycle model is derived to capture the complex relation between ageing and the demand for non‐housing durable goods. Decreasing survival probability, deteriorating health and changing preferences are jointly reflected in the age gradient of demand. Simulations indicate that higher chances of survival increase the ownership ratio of the durable items.

Multidimensional Poverty, Approach by the Fuzzy Set Theory: The Case of Soubre and Gueyo in Cote DDIvoire

This study allowed us to measure poverty in terms of living conditions by using the fuzzy sets theory and breaking down this poverty by household characteristics. Subsequently, we evaluated the impact of the administration of land and the type of practiced cultures on the living conditions of cocoa farmer households. To make this, we have constructed a multidimensional poverty index with Multiple Component Analysis (MCA) and the fuzzy set theory. By using data from departments of Soubre and Gueyo from the survey on cocoa production systems and livelihoods of populations in areas of cocoa production, conducted by National School of Statistics and Applied Economics (NSSAE) of Abidjan, we evaluated to 43.25% the level of deprivation of the households in these cocoa farmer two cities. We also found that the main dimensions of displacement, ownership of durable goods, education, agricultural equipment, access to finance and training are the key drivers of poverty in households of cocoa farmers of Soubre and Gueyo. Similarly, associating other cultures to cocoa and the fact to own their land improve the living conditions of households cocoa farmers in these two cities.

The Development Impact of a Best Practice Seasonal Worker Policy

Abstract Seasonal migration programs are widely used around the world, yet there is little evidence as to their development impacts. A multiyear prospective evaluation of New Zealand's Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) seasonal worker program allows us to measure the impact of participating in this program on households in Tonga and Vanuatu. Using a propensity-score prescreened difference-in-differences analysis based on surveys fielded before, during, and after participation, we find that the RSE has indeed had positive development impacts that dwarf those of other popular development interventions. It has increased income, consumption, and savings of households; durable goods ownership; and subjective standard of living. The results also suggest that child schooling improved in Tonga.

Intrahousehold Bargaining and the Demand for Consumer Durables in Brazil

In Brazil, wives do most of the household work. About sixty percent of them also work outside the household, working a total of about 10 hours more per week than men. Because of this unequal distribution of household work, husbands and wives might have different priorities regarding the purchase of durable goods. Although both husbands and wives enjoy entertainment durable goods, wives might have a relative preference for household-production durable goods such as washing machines over entertainment durable goods such as televisions. Using a Brazilian household consumption survey, we examine whether decisions about ownership of entertainment and production durable goods are the outcomes of a bargaining process between husbands and wives. We use several variables to measure bargaining power, including the ratio of women to men in a state. The results indicate that decisions about durable goods ownership are the outcomes of bargaining processes between husbands and wives with wives having a relative preference for household-production durable goods over entertainment durable goods compared to their husbands. Bargaining might explain why ownership of household production durable goods is relatively low in Brazil, despite their potential to save women's time.

The African Growth Miracle

Measures of real consumption based on the ownership of durable goods, the quality of housing, the health and mortality of children, the education of youths, and the allocation of female time in the household indicate that sub-Saharan living standards have, for the past two decades, been growing about 3.4–3.7 percent per year, that is, three and a half to four times the rate indicated in international data sets.

Estimating Consumption- Based Poverty in the Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey

Inequalities in health are linked with poverty, but quantifying the health/poverty nexusis hampered by data constraints. In particular, the most common measure of poverty compares consumption with poverty lines, but consumption surveys often do not collect detailed health data. Conversely, the large repository of internationallycomparable Demographic and Health Surveys has detailed health data but no consumption data. This has led DHS researchers who want to control for socioeconomic status use an asset index defined in terms of housing characteristics and the ownership of durable goods. While this is a valid conception of poverty, it is difficult to compare it with the more-common consumption-based measure. This paper presents a simple poverty scorecard for Ethiopia based on the poverty-mapping approach of Elbers et al. (2003). It allows researchers to estimate the likelihood that consumption is below a given poverty line using nine verifiable, inexpensive-to-collect indicators found in both Ethiopia’s 2005 DHS and in the 2004/5 Household Income, Consumption, and Expenditure Survey. It turns out that the poverty scorecard and the DHS asset index do not generally rank people the same, so estimates of consumptionbased poverty in the DHS should use the poverty scorecard, not the DHS asset index. The bias and precision of scorecard estimates compare well with that of other tools, suggesting that government could use it to track poverty in years between national household expenditure surveys. Keywords : Poverty measurement, asset index, poverty mapping, Africa, Ethiopia, health equity

Dynamic Discrete Choice Models for Transportation

Discrete choice models have received widespread acceptance in transport research over the past three decades, being used in travel demand modelling and behavioural analysis; however, their applications have been mainly developed in a static context. There have been several dynamic models in transportation; but these formulations are not based on dynamic optimization principles and do not allow for changes in external factors. With the continuous and rapid changes in modern societies (i.e. introduction of advanced technologies, aggressive marketing strategies and innovative policies) it is more and more recognized by researchers in various disciplines from economics to social science that choice situations take place in a dynamic environment and that strong interdependencies exist among decisions made at different points in time. Dynamic discrete choice models (DDCMs) describe the behaviour of a forward-looking economic agent who chooses between several alternatives repeatedly over time. DDCMs are usually specified as an optimal stopping problem, where agents decide when to make a change in ownership of durable goods or in their behaviour. In this paper, we present the application of the dynamic formulation to short- to medium-term vehicle-holding decisions.

Health and Wellbeing in Udaipur and South Africa

This paper presents a descriptive account of health and economic status in India and South Africa - countries in very different positions in the international hierarchy of life expectancy and income. The paper emphasizes the lack of any simple and reliable relationship between health and wealth between and within our sites in rural Rajasthan, in a shack township outside of Cape Town, and in a rural South African site that, until 1994, was part of a Bantustan. Income levels across our sites are roughly in the ratio of 4:2:1, with urban South Africa richest and rural Rajasthan poorest, while ownership of durable goods, often used as a short-cut measure or check of living standards, are in the ratio of 3:2:1. These differences in economic status are reflected in respondents' own reports of financial status. People know that they are poor, but appear to adapt their expectations to local conditions, at least to some extent. The South Africans are taller and heavier than the Indians - although their children are no taller at the same age. South African self-assessed physical and mental health is no better, and South Africans are more likely to report that they have to miss meals for lack of money. In spite of differences in incomes across the three sites, South Africans and Indians report a very similar list of symptoms of ill-health. Although they have much lower incomes, urban women in South Africa have fully caught up with black American women in the prevalence of obesity, and are catching up in terms of hypertension. These women have the misfortune to be experiencing many of the diseases of affluence without experiencing affluence itself.

Family expenditures post-welfare reform in the UK: Are low-income families starting to catch up?

In this paper, we provide evidence on the question of how the UK government's welfare reforms since 1998 have affected the material well-being of children in low-income families. We examine changes in expenditure patterns and ownership of durable goods for low- and higher-income families between the pre-reform period (1995-1998) and the post-reform period (2000-2003), using data from the Family Expenditure Survey. The methodological approach is a difference-in-difference-in-difference analysis that exploits the fact that age variation in the reforms favoured low-income families over higher income ones and families with children age under 11 over those with older children. We find that low-income families with children are catching up to more affluent families, in their expenditures and their possession of durable goods. Moreover, expenditures on child-related items are increasing faster than expenditures on other items.

Targeting Social Assistance in a Transition Economy: The Mahallas in Uzbekistan

Abstract Falling output and living standards have pushed countries in transition from the socialist system to reconsider how best to target public resources on those in need. This paper investigates the workings of a new social assistance benefit in Uzbekistan, the largest of the former Soviet Central Asian republics, administered by community organizations, the Mahallas. Household survey data are used to assess the scheme's success in targeting on the most vulnerable households, using a variety of indicators including income, durable goods ownership, agricultural assets, employment status, and anthropometric status of children.

Household Expenditures and Wealth among Young Guatemalan Adults

In this article, we describe expenditure and wealth patterns, indicators of long-run economic well-being, for a sample of young Guatemalan adults interviewed for the Human Capital Study 2002-04, finding a number of differences across subgroups of the sample. The main difference across birth-year cohorts is that younger subjects tend to live in smaller households, with lower total annual household expenditures (and fewer durable goods), though per capita measures are similar across cohorts. This appears to be related to life-cycle fertility patterns. There is a clear positive association between parental socioeconomic status (SES) and current levels of expenditure and durable goods ownership. This association does not hold for all households, however, as there is both upward and downward "mobility" in the sample. Those living in the capital have the highest overall wealth levels, consistent with typical rural-urban patterns. Where there are expenditure differences across groups, they tend to be driven by differences in nonfood rather than food expenditures. Lastly, the study sample is relatively well off compared with their compatriots, with a poverty rate of 35% and an extreme poverty rate of only 3%, against national averages of 56% and 15%, respectively.

Convergence and divergence in consumer behaviour: implications for global advertising

One aspect of globalisation is the convergence of income, media and technology, which in turn is expected to lead to homogeneous consumer behaviour. This convergence thesis is increasingly questioned. With converging national wealth there still is substantial variation of consumer behaviour across nations, which is not disappearing. Variation is found in all aspects of consumer behaviour: in consumption of packaged goods, in usage and ownership of durable goods, and in media behaviour. With disappearing differences of GNP per capita, culture is a powerful explaining variable. This paper provides evidence of divergence of consumer behaviour rather than convergence, it describes the influence of culture, how cultural variables can explain variance of consumption, and presents the consequences for international brand management and for global advertising.

Economic status proxies in studies of fertility in developing countries: Does the measure matter?

This paper investigates the consequences of using different economic status proxies on the estimated impact of economic status and other determinants of fertility. Using micro survey data from Ghana and Peru, we find that the proxies for income that best predict fertility are a principal components score of the ownership of consumer durable goods and a simple sum of ownership of these durable goods. Furthermore, the choice of the proxy generally has a minor influence on the predicted effects of the control variables. We compare the results from using a restricted set of proxies, such as those available in the Demographic and Health Surveys, with the results obtained using a lengthier set of proxies. Our results suggest implications beyond fertility analyses by providing researchers with an awareness of the sensitivity of microanalyses to the treatment of economic status. Our results also suggest practical recommendations for the collection of survey data.

Fertility and Family Planning Trends in Karachi, Pakistan

This study examined fertility and contraceptive use trends in Pakistan. Data were obtained from a survey of 2651 ever married women from populations using 3 maternity homes of the Aga Khan Health Service of Pakistan. Clients came from diverse households from many urban neighborhoods. Socioeconomic status was measured by occupation ownership of durable goods crowding amenities and income per capita. The mean family size was 6.4 persons. The crude birth rate was 23.2/1000 population. The general fertility rate declined from 190 births/1000 to 98/1000 during 1976-91. The total fertility rate declined from 5.7 to 3.0. Average marriage age increased to 21.7 years in 1990-91. 79% knew of at least one modern method. Knowledge was higher among women in their 20s and women with education. 45% of married nonpregnant women reported use of a modern method. Tubal ligation was the most prevalent method. 54% of ever married women reported use. Use increased over time. 22% of married nonpregnant women desired more children. 71% were satisfied with their family size. Fertility preferences were strongly related to family size. Many obtained supplies from private sources. Findings suggest a large unmet need. Results may be underestimates.

Targeting Social Assistance in a Transition Economy: the Mahallas in Uzbekistan

Falling output and living standards have pushed countries in transition from the socialist system to re-consider how best to target public resources on those in need. The paper investigates the workings of a new social assistance benefit in Uzbekistan, the largest of the former Soviet Central Asian republics, administered by community organizations, the Mahallas. Data are used from a 1995 household survey to assess the scheme's success in targeting the most vulnerable households, using a variety of indicators including income, durable goods ownership, agricultural assets, employment status, and the anthropometric status of children. The separate probabilities of knowledge of the scheme, of application for benefit, and of award are modelled.