EU elections--young men and young women in Austria

This is a striking contrast:

Compare young men with young women (source: der Standard):

I wonder about household formation...

Name as a Quality Signal

A firm's choice of a name is a signal of quality

The average plumbing firm whose name begins with "A" or a number receives fi ve times more service complaints than other firms, and also charges higher prices.

Ryan C McDevitt has this paper forthcoming in the Journal of Political Economy.

Male Circumcision

I did not know this:

male circumcision is one of the most cost-effective HIV prevention interventions. The most recent simulations suggest that scaling up medical male circumcision to 80 percent coverage in priority countries could avert approximately 22 percent HIV infections through 2025

from Chinkhumba, Godlonton, and Thornton (2014), who study the demand for male circumcision in Malawi.

Actual demand in Malawi is less than 10 percent --- far from the 80 percent stated above. Demand, however, is greater at lower prices, but information appears to be an important reason for actual take-up, too.

Wieviel verdient denn wer in Österreich?

Der neo-Politiker Egon Freund hat in einem Interview das durchschnittliche Bruttoeinkommen eines Arbeiters auf rund Euro 3.000,- pro Monat geschätzt. Das hat eine heftige Diskussion losgetreten--die Journalistinnen Eva Linsinger und Rosemarie Schwaiger haben im Artikel den Betrag mit rund Euro 2.000,- angegeben.

Die beste Quelle für derartige Zahlen ist der "Allgemeine Einkommensbericht des Rechnungshofes" (genauer: "Bericht des Rechnungshofes über die durchschnittlichen Einkommen der gesamten Bevölkerung gemäß Art. 1 § 8 Abs. 4 des Bezügebegrenzungsgesetzes, BGBl. I Nr. 64/1997, getrennt nach Branchen, Berufsgruppen und Funktionen für die Jahre 2010 und 2011").

Hier findet sich auf Seite 211 folgende Übersicht für Personen, die 2011 vollzeitlich beschäftigt waren (ohne Lehrlinge), die Daten basieren auf den Lohnsteuermeldungen und Sozialversicherungsdaten:

	Median	Durchschnitt
Arbeiter und -innen	26.264	26.486
Angestellte	35.803	42.954
Vertragsbedienstete	35.251	37.686
Beamte und -innen	50.657	53.896

Der Brutto-Netto-Rechner des BM für Finanzen gibt für einen Arbeiter in OÖ, bei einem monatlichen Bezug von Euro 3.000,- (ohne Kinder, ohne Pendlerpauschale) ein Jahreseinkommen für 2011 von Brutto Euro 42.000,- an. Ein derartiger Monatsbezug von Euro 2000 resultiert in einem Jahreseinkommen von Euro 28.000,-, was ungefähr dem durschnittlichen Bruttojahreseinkommen von (männlichen) Arbeitern im Jahr 2011 entspricht (Euro 28.082,-, Seite 215).

interpreting scientific claims

Nature has a great list of

20 concepts that should be part of the education of civil servants, politicians, policy advisers and journalists — and anyone else who may have to interact with science or scientists. Politicians with a healthy scepticism of scientific advocates might simply prefer to arm themselves with this critical set of knowledge.

Let's improve the "education of civil servants, politicians, policy advisers and journalists"--they seem to need it!

keeping the doctor away

New research investigates the effect of preventive health using field experiments.

Results have important policy conclusions:
1. poor households do not take preventative health measures because they are unwilling to pay for them.
2. information campaigns have relatively low impact
3. peer effects matter, however, only when information asymmetry is likely to matter

There is more: Jennifer M. Meredith, Jonathan Robinson, Sarah Walker, Bruce Wydick, "Keeping the Doctor Away: Experimental Evidence on Investment in Preventative Health Products", NBER Working Paper No. 19312.

Who can afford to discriminate against women?

Short answer: only firms that operate in a non-competitive environment can afford to discriminate (unfairly), a competitive market forces firms that are not profit-maximizing to leave the market.

To find convincing evidence for this is difficult, however, economists have come up with several strategies (e.g., the degree of competion in an industry, variation over time, et cetera).

My colleagues Mario Lackner and Christine Zulehner have a new working paper where they exploit a market where some firms have market power due to an institutionalized cartel: Universites that automatically qualify for the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) in collegiate football have greater market power than those which do not qualify automatically.

They show that a higher market share results in a greater wage difference between male and female head coaches. In addition, female coaches are being crowded out by men.

Only firms with market power can sustain the cost disadvantages resulting from discriminating against a certain type of employee.