Haiyong Liu

Housing Over Time And Over The Life Cycle: A Structural Estimation

Superseded by Working Paper 15-04. We estimate a structural model of optimal life-cycle housing and consumption in the presence of realistic labor income and house price uncertainties. The model postulates constant elasticity of substitution between housing service and nonhousing consumption, and explicitly incorporates a house adjustment cost. Our estimation fits the cross-sectional and time-series household wealth and housing profiles from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics quite well, and suggests an intra-temporal elasticity of substitution between housing and nonhousing consumption of 0.33 and a housing adjustment cost that amounts to about 15 percent of house value. Policy experiments with estimated preference parameters imply that households respond nonlinearly to house price changes with large house price declines leading to sizable decreases in both the aggregate homeownership rate and aggregate non-housing consumption. The average marginal propensity to consume out of housing wealth changes ranges from 0.4 percent to 6 percent. When lending conditions are tightened in the form of a higher down payment requirement, interestingly, large house price declines result in more severe drops in the aggregate homeownership rate but milder decreases in nonhousing consumption.

Association between Travel Times and Food Procurement Practices among Female Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participants in Eastern North Carolina

OBJECTIVE To examine associations between self-reported vehicular travel behaviors, perceived stress, food procurement practices, and body mass index among female Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants. ANALYSIS The authors used correlation and regression analyses to examine cross-sectional associations between travel time and distance, perceived stress, food procurement practices (grocery shopping frequency, fast-food consumption, home meal consumption), and body mass index among female SNAP participants aged 20-65 years (n = 215) in eastern North Carolina. RESULTS There were positive associations (P < .05) between travel patterns and stress (r = 0.18 for average miles traveled), grocery shopping frequency (r = 0.16 for average miles traveled), and fast-food consumption (r = 0.19 for average miles traveled, r = 0.29 for average minutes traveled). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS SNAP education materials should focus on healthful interactions with the food environment, even when participants must travel long distances.

Food stamp participation is associated with fewer meals away from home, yet higher body mass index and waist circumference in a nationally representative sample.

OBJECTIVE To examine associations between Food Stamp (FS) participation, meals away from home (MAFH), body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference (WC). DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Nationally representative. PARTICIPANTS Data from low-income, FS-eligible individuals (N = 945) ages 20-65 years, responding to the 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) MAFH per week, BMI, and WC. ANALYSIS Multiple linear regression models were used to examine associations between FS participation and MAFH, BMI, and WC, adjusting for age, sex, race, and education level. RESULTS Food Stamp authorization was associated with fewer MAFH (P = .004). Among females, FS authorization was associated with higher BMI (P = .04) and WC (P = .04). Among females reporting amount of benefits in the prior month, more FS benefits received were associated with lower BMI (P = .03) and WC (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Seemingly contradictory results regarding associations between FS authorization and FS benefits received in the previous month and BMI and WC should be explored further. Effective nutrition education and environmental change strategies are needed, particularly among female FS recipients.

Subjective poverty equivalence scales for Euro Zone countries

While the idea behind subjective equivalence scales is generally attractive, subjective scales have been plagued by problems of inconsistency. We address this problem with new European Income and Living Conditions (SILC) datasets that are much larger in size than those available to previous researchers. We estimate subjective equivalence scales for the whole Euro Zone as well as its individual constituent countries. Our subjective scales increase consistently with household size. More importantly, we find that adding the first child is more costly than adding a third adult and that the marginal cost of children declines. Comparing modified OECD scale poverty rates to our subjective poverty rates (holding the overall poverty rate constant) we find that the subjective scales ‘redistribute poverty’ away from larger to smaller households.

Addressing Onsite Sampling in Analysis of Recreation Demand: Economic Value and Impact of Visitation to Cape Hatteras National Seashore

ABSTRACT This article presents a unified approach to correcting for avidity bias due to onsite sampling in estimation of descriptive statistics and recreation demand. We extend the Shaw (1988) correction for avidity bias in demand modeling to the Generalized Negative Binomial model, and we demonstrate the effects of avidity bias on descriptive statistics. Correcting for avidity bias in recreation demand lowers welfare estimates, which are still, however, quite large at

HOUSING OVER TIME AND OVER THE LIFE CYCLE: A STRUCTURAL ESTIMATION: HOUSING OVER TIME AND OVER THE LIFE CYCLE

403/household, per trip (2002 USD). Correcting expenditure estimates increases economic impact by 17%, reflecting greater magnitude in spending patterns of less avid users that live further from Cape Hatteras National Seashore. JEL Codes: C83, Q26, Q51.

Cross-Country Intergenerational Status Mobility: Is there a Great Gatsby Curve?

We construct a model of optimal life‐cycle housing and nonhousing consumption and estimate the elasticity between the two goods to be 0.487. The estimate is robust to different assumptions of housing adjustment cost, but sensitive to the choice of sample period and the degree of aggregation of data moments. We then conduct experiments in which house prices and household income fluctuate. Compared with the benchmark, the impact of the shocks on homeownership rates is reduced, but the impact on nonhousing consumption is magnified when housing service and nonhousing consumption are highly substitutable or when the house selling cost is sizable.

Chapter 11 Rising incomes and nutritional inequality in China

Abstract Countries with greater income inequality also tend to have less intergenerational mobility. This relationship, as referred by Krueger (2012), is called “The Great Gatsby Curve.” Criticisms on this curve have brought to notice several limitations of previous studies: a few number of observations; short gap of time between measured inequality and immobility; heterogeneous databases; and model-based estimates of immobility. To correct for some of these limitations, we test for the impact of past income inequality on intergenerational social status persistence using the International Social Survey Program (2009). In accordance with previous studies, we find a positive relationship between these two variables, though the relatively poor model fit suggests the presence of other factors. In this respect, we find that past economic freedom has a negative and significant impact on social status persistence, while previous growth is not significant.

Economic Value and Impact of Visitation to Cape Hatteras National Seashore: Addressing Onsite Sampling

Rising incomes in China have not led to a smaller degree of undernutrition as measured by percentage of population below calorie and protein recommended daily allowances. The weak relationship between income and nutrition is further demonstrated by our income elasticity estimates for calories and protein, which are generally zero. We do find that the percentage of fat in the calorie source is a normal good.

The Disappearing Nutritional Bias Against Chinese Girls

We examine recreation demand, economic value, and visitor expenditure patterns for Cape Hatteras National Seashore (CHNS) on the Outer Banks, North Carolina. CHNS is one of the largest protected barrier islands on the East Coast and is remote, accessible only by ferry or a single stretch of road running along the island chain. We present a unified approach to correcting for avidity bias due to onsite sampling in descriptive statistics and demand modeling, extending the Shaw (1988) correction to the Generalized Negative Binomial model. We demonstrate the effects of avidity bias in descriptive statistics; correcting expenditure estimates increases economic impact by 17%, reflecting larger magnitude in spending patterns of less avid users that live further from CNHS. Correcting for avidity bias in recreation demand lowers welfare estimates, which are still, however, quite large at