This paper analyzes the feasibility of various types of currency unions, such as a dollar bloc, Euro bloc, Yen bloc, and basket currency bloc in East Asia, and empirically estimates welfare effects of a currency union for East Asian economies. Judging from optimum currency area (OCA) criteria, including the symmetry of output and price shocks across countries, commitment to price stability, and...

Objectives: Hearing impairment in children is considered as an important public health problem. Auditory function in these children is poor and depends on their hearing aids efficacy and also their ears’ status. Hearing aids are very expensive and ear disease deteriorates its performance. Therefore detecting the ear disease and offering proper treatment is necessary. The aim of this study is to...

Studies presented in this paper were supported by funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (grant 5–RO1–DA12256), the Administration for Children and Families, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The 1996 welfare reform law replaced the existing entitlement to cash welfare with a transitional program of temporary aid that has employment as its primary goal. Among the key provisions...

A dominant firm holding import quota engages in inter-temporal price discrimination when facing a competitive fringe engaged in seasonal production. This causes a welfare loss that comes in addition the loss attributable to limitation of imports below the free trade level. JEL classification: F12, F13

Prescriptive economics requires that, unless there are very good reasons to the contrary, economic policy should be based on the principle that individuals’ preferences should count. Indeed, the entire body of ‘welfare economics’ centres round the formal identity of the statement “X prefers A to B” and the statement “X has higher welfare in A rather than B”. This combination of a seemingly inno...

The widespread hardships caused by the Great Recession and the sharp increase in budget deficits have brought to the fore the debate over the desired level of government provided welfare assistance. To what extent are voters' preferences on welfare policy driven by their personal circumstances versus their ideological dispositions? Addressing this question is difficult because individuals' ideo...

Child welfare workforce turnover rates across private and public child welfare agencies are concerning. Although research about the causes of child welfare workforce turnover has been plentiful, empirical studies on the effects of turnover on child outcomes are sparse. Furthermore, the voices and experiences of youths within the system have been largely overlooked.The purpose ofthis study was, ...