The large number of near-poor relative to poor elderly persons in the United States may be recharacterized as a high-prevalence, low-intensity type of poverty. The present study investigates how this characterization is affected by accounting for assets and non-cash transfers in addition to cash income in resources available for current-year consumption. The Foster, Greer, Thorbecke (FGT) pover...

This paper examines the relative importance of earnings and operating cash flows in equity valuation. In contrast to previous studies that use stock returns or future operating cash flows, we use ex post intrinsic value of equity as the criterion for comparison. Ex post intrinsic value of equity is determined adopting both the discounted dividend and residual income models with ex post (future)...

Having a sense of purpose in life appears valuable across life domains, though it remains unclear whether purpose also provides financial value to individuals. The current study examined sense of purpose as a predictor of concurrent and longitudinal income and net worth levels, using two waves of the MIDUS sample of adults (N = 4660 across both assessments). Participants who reported a higher s...

The special tax treatment of UK pensions means that the decision on how to use pensions assets is more involved than in other tax jurisdictions. In particular, the ability to take up to 25% of pensions assets as a tax-free cash lump sum at retirement offers retirees opportunities to enhance their pension above that possible through the purchase of a compulsory purchase annuity (“CPA”). The tax-...

Releasing prices and performing cash subsidy payment to all applicants with a different income level create differences in the method of household function and different services of organizations including waste and recycling management organization. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of cash subsidy payment on the quantity of domestic waste in Rasht (Guilan province, Iran)....

Previous studies find large cross-national differences in inequality amongst rich Western nations, due in large part to differences in the generosity of welfare state transfers. The United States is the least generous nation and the one having the most after-tax and transfer inequality. But these analyses are limited to the effects of cash and near-cash transfers and direct taxes on incomes, wh...

Economists have long been interested in determining whether increases in income cause either a stabilizing effect on a couple’s marriage or a destabilizing “independence effect”. However, estimating the effect of income on marital stability is difficult due to a lack of exogenous pure income shocks. To overcome that problem, we compare the divorce rates of winners of large cash prizes through t...

Is there a Pareto improving rationale for a welfare state in dynamic economies with unobservable agent heterogeneity, when missing credit and insurance markets affect incentives to invest in human capital? If so, should the state provide transfers to the poor in the form of cash or in-kind transfers? In an occupational choice model, we show (a) every competitive equilibrium is interim-Pareto do...

This paper studies utility interdependence in the laboratory. We design an experiment where subjects can reduce (“burn”) other subjects’ money. Those who burn the money of others have to give up some of their own cash to do so. Despite this cost, and contrary to the assumptions of economics textbooks, the majority of our subjects choose to destroy at least part of others’ money holdings. We var...