The Marital Wage Premium in the Twenty-First Century: Do married men earn a higher wage rate, and if so, why?
By Hans F. Kist and Yanqi (Halley) Hu Married men have historically earned higher wages than single men. One of the most prominent explanations for this phenomenon is the theory of intra-household specialization. However, the marriage premium was found to be decreasing up until the early 90’s. In our paper, we have re-examined the wage […]
The Determinants and Social Benefit of Student Summer Activity: An Analysis of the Determinants of Summer Activity Participation by Elementary and Secondary Students, and the Resulting Social Benefit of Summer Activity Participation on Crime
By Elad Gross Using data from 1996, this study first identifies the socioeconomic determinants of a child’s participation in an organized summer activity. Models are produced for summer activity in general and for different types of summer activities. The results indicate the importance of caregiver supervisory capability in choosing whether to send a child to […]
Female Surname Choice: Historical, Cultural, and Branding Influences at Duke University
By Corinne Grzbowski Female surname choice at marriage depends on a range of historical, cultural, and branding factors. Two of the three datasets are administrative datasets from the Duke University Alumni Association (DAA), which include every female Duke alumnae from 1960-2000. The third dataset comes from a survey administered to Duke alumnae. We find that […]
Crisis Period Forecast Evaluation of the DCC-GARCH Model
By Yang Ding The goal of this paper is to investigate the forecasting ability of the Dynamic Conditional Correlation Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (DCC-GARCH). We estimate the DCC’s forecasting ability relative to unconditional volatility in three equity-based crashes: the S&L Crisis, the Dot-Com Boom/Crash, and the recent Credit Crisis. The assets we use are the […]
Measuring the Likelihood of Small Business Loan Default: Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and the use of Credit-Scoring to Minimize Default Risk1
By Andrea Coravos Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) provide financial services to underserved markets and populations. Using small business loan portfolio data from a national CDFI, this paper identifies the specific borrower, lender, and loan characteristics and changes in economic conditions that increase the likelihood of default. These results lay the foundation for an in-house […]
Entering the Campus Courtship Culture: Factors that Influence College Students‘ Relationship Types
By Sott Casale Drawing on data from a 2007 random sample of Duke University seniors (369 males and 381 females), this paper analyzes individual factors that influence whether men and women were more likely to engage in the hook-up culture or an exclusive romantic relationship (ERR) as compared to doing nothing. There is substantial research […]
Do Political Connections Help Firms Gain Access to Bank Credit in Vietnam?
By David Brunnell One of the major contributing factors to Vietnam’s macroeconomic instability has been the massive growth of credit inflows and its often inefficient allocations. Vietnam is in a state of economic transition from state-planned to open market based. The private sector has grown very rapidly but private firms’ demand for credit is still […]
Do Teenagers Exhibit Rational Expectations Regarding Mortality, Fertility and Education Outcomes?
By Nikolay Braykov Microeconomic models often use the Rational Expectation Hypothesis (REH) instead of including expectation data. This paper examines the validity of the REH using subjective probability questions about mortality, fertility and education outcomes from panel data. First, I ask whether expectations are accurate and homogenous at the individual level; I find substantial forecast […]
Collusion with Three Bidders at First-Price Auctions
By Andrew Born Lopomo, Marx, & Sun (2009) show that, given a speci fied environment, pro table collusion is not possible for a two-person bidding ring operating at a fi rst-price sealed-bid auction. This research investigates the rigor of their result by expanding the theoretical framework to the case of a three-bidder cartel. The output generated from the […]
The Dynamics of Health Care Demand During an Illness Episode
By David Benson Previous studies assume consumers make medical care choices over large (e.g. yearly) time steps. However, most health expenses occur in the weeks immediately following a shock to health. It is unknown whether demand during an illness episode diers from normal long-run demand. How do consumers make the sequential, dynamic choices to consume […]
