Are all the good men married?

Does marriage cause men’s wages to rise?  This is the question addressed by UCSD professor Kate Antonovics and Robert Town in their 2004 paper in AER cleverly titled “Are all the good men married?” It has been shown that married men earn more money than non-married men with similar characteristics.  Why is this?  A few…

Capitalism on the ropes?

The S&P 500 is down 41% compared to last year.  The unemployment rate in the U.S. is now at 6.7%.  Large financial institutions are failing and droves of homeowners are defaulting on their mortgages.  Is it time to give up on capitalism? Before we hand over the keys to the economy to President-elect Barack Obama, we should…

Quiet your inner economist?

As Health Access California reminds us, tough economic times are often when sweeping government policies are enacted.    President-elect Obama has some tough choices to make.  Should he expand existing government programs to help those who are hurt by the economic crisis?  Or should he scale back these government programs to show some fiscal responsibility?…

Risk aversion and health behaviors

Are risk averse individuals less likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors?  According to Anderson and Mellor (JHE 2008), the answer is yes.  Using a Holt and Laury (AER 2002) methodology to measure risk aversion, the authors find that individuals who are risk averse are less likely to smoke, drink, be overweight or drive over the…

Are single speciality hospitals efficient?

I have written in the past about the recent popularity of single specialty hospitals (see “Focused Factories” and “…Specialty Hospitals” posts).  A paper by Kathleen Carey investigates whether or not single specialty hospitals are more efficient than traditional mutli-specialty hospitals.  The study finds the following: Overall, single speciality hospitals (SSH) are not more cost efficient…

How much money does a professor make?

The Chronicle of Higher Education has data on 2007-2008 salaries for professors at various ranks (Assistant, Associate, Full Professor) in various departments.   AVERAGE FACULTY SALARIES BY FIELD AND RANK AT 4-YEAR COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, 2007-8. Professors teaching Law, Business or Engineer were among the highest paid.”Among new assistant professors, those in business had the…