Coming Up Short: Family Composition, Income, and Household Savings

Income uncertainty and household savings in China

China’s urban household saving rate has increased markedly since the mid-1990s and the agesaving profile has become U-shaped. To understand these patterns, we analyze a panel of urban Chinese households over the period 1989-2009. We document a sharp increase in income uncertainty, largely due to an increase in transitory variance (the variance in household income attributed to transitory idiosy...

Measuring the MBTI . . . And Coming Up Short

Imagine a test that would allow you to predict the type of career for which a person is best suited For example, Mary comes to you for career counseling. She presents you with her education and work history, and an outline of her career objectives. Specifically, she says that she would like to find an entry-level position where she can help people, and is interested in a career in the social se...

Coming up short on nonfinancial performance measurement.

Companies in increasing numbers are measuring customer loyalty, employee satisfaction, and other nonfinancial areas of performance that they believe affect profitability. But they've failed to relate these measures to their strategic goals or establish a connection between activities undertaken and financial outcomes achieved. Failure to make such connections has led many companies to misdirect...

Rapid Changes in Household Composition among Low Income Mothers

Drugs, Money, and Family: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of Household Composition and Illegal Labor Market Income

Despite the few studies on the illegal earnings of drug sellers, the motivating factors that cause some social actors to enter the illicit drug market as sellers remains unknown. Using pooled data from the Arrestee and Drug Abuse Monitoring Program (ADAM), I investigate how household size and composition affect illegal wages earned from illicit drug sales. My findings support existing studies o...