Russell F. Settle

Women's suffrage and the growth of the welfare state

In this paper we test the hypothesis that extensions of the voting franchise to include lower income people lead to growth in government, especially growth in redistribution expenditures. The empirical analysis takes advantage of the natural experiment provided by Switzerlands extension of the franchise to women in 1971. Womens suffrage represents an institutional change with potentially significant implications for the positioning of the decisive voter. For various reasons, the decisive voter is more likely to favor increases in governmental social welfare spending following the enfranchisement of women. Evidence indicates that this extension of voting rights increased Swiss social welfare spending by 28% and increased the overall size of the Swiss government.

A Simultaneous-Equation Model of Labor Supply, Fertility and Earnings of Married Women: The Case of Registered Nurses

A simultaneous-equation model of labor supply, fertility, and earnings is developed and estimated for an important subset of the female population, married registered nurses (RNs). Measures of variables specific to married nurses age 21-64 are developed by aggregating observations on individual nurses or their families into Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA) averages, from the 1-in-100 Public Use Sample of the 1970 Census of Population in the U.S. The sample was restricted in certain ways: the grouped observations apply only to white RNs who are married with husband present and live in SMSAs of over 250,000 population in 1970 (except Honolulu). The sample is further restricted so that each included observation (representing an SMSA average) is based upon an underlying pool of at least 15 individual nurses. This last restriction reduces the sample of SMSAs to 88 from 124. The coefficient on the nurse wage variable is positive and statistically significant with an implied wage elasticity of .40 at the means. These estimates are consistent with those observed using the analogous microcensus data on RNs. RN fertility has the predicted negative effect on nurse labor supply but is statistically insignificant, but the magnitude of the fertility coefficient is plausible. A 10% increase in nurse fertility within an SMSA (number of children ever born/1000 nurses ever married within an SMSA) is associated with a reduction in the SMSA nurse labor supply. The estimated coefficients of the husband-earnings and nonlabor-income variables are negative but only the former is statistically significant at the 90% level or above. The estimated effect of the nurses earnings opportunities on her fertility are statistically insignificant, but the wage coefficient is negative as expected and implies an elasticity of nurse fertility with respect to the nurse wage rate of approximately -.2. The coefficient on the labor supply variable is negative and statistically significant, confirming the hypothesis that increased labor market activity increases the opportunity costs of children. Husbands earnings are not a significant determinant of RN fertility. The estimates suggest that nurse labor supply and fertility decisions are relatively unimportant factors in determining the nurses market earnings.

Pressure-group influence and institutional change: Branch-banking legislation during the Great Depression*

Between 1931 and 1935 the change in the state laws governing the organizational structure of banking was significant. Twenty-two states relaxed restrictions over branch banking, even though many had previously prohibited it. We apply a model of pressure-group and rent-seeking behavior to investigate the reasons underlying this remarkable shift in the institutional arrangements for regulating the structure of the banking industry. The findings indicate that the extraordinarily high rate of bank failures tipped the political balance toward the pro-branching forces in many states. However, in a number of states growth in the influence of branch and group bankers and increases in urbanization were largely responsible for the relaxation of restrictions over branch banking.

Labor Supply Responses of Married Professional Nurses: New Evidence

This paper considers how the decision to enter advanced practice nursing (e.g., the occupations of nurse practitioner, certified nurse-midwife, nurse anesthetist, and clinical nurse specialist) is affected by State laws on the scope of practice of APNs. ...

Equity and the Utilization of Health Care Services by the Medicare Elderly

In their study of physician and hospital utilization in 1969, Davis and Reynolds found that Medicare had failed to eliminate major racial and income-related inequities in the use of medical services by the elderly. Our analysis-which takes advantage of more recent data, an improved model specification, and a more appropriate pooling procedure-reveals that these inequities in utilization had diminished considerably by the mid-1970s. Several hypotheses concerning the underlying demand- and supply-side sources of these equity gains are offered.

The Impact of Banking and Fiscal Policies on State-Level Economic Growth

This paper investigates the hypothesis that economic growth is affected by banking structure and fiscal policies. We use data from the 48 contiguous states for the period 1950–1980 aggregated into six five-year time periods, primarily to test the effect of the following factors on growth of state per capita income: (i) restrictions over branch banking, (ii) restrictions over multibank holding companies, (iii) the depth of financial assets in a state, (iv) the financial-intermediary mix, (v) the size of state government, and (vi) the methods of financing state government. We find no support for the hypotheses that branch banking or multibank holding company restrictions affect growth. However, financial depth and the mix of financial intermediaries are strongly correlated with economic growth. Finally, the state fiscal policy variables had no significant effect on income growth.

Medicare and the disadvantaged elderly: objectives and outcomes.

Medicare aimed, above all, to improve access to health care services for the most disadvantaged elderly by removing distributional, attitudinal, and financial barriers. Legislative intent was based on sketchy statistical evidence of need and enriched by extensive testimony of hardship. By more precise measurements, the mature Medicare program is shown to have been largely successful. Yet, some problems of access remain, and some costly side effects are identified.

Financial incentive and labor supply of married professional nurses: an economic analysis.

The extent to which the supply of nursing services would increase in response to higher nurse compensation and other employment inducements, as the topic pertains to married nurses, was investigated. Higher wages, it was found, probably would not be effective in providing more nursing services but would, indeed, have the opposite effect–of reducing the number of hours worked by registered nurses.

Access to medical care under Medicaid: differentials by race.

The Medicaid program was designed to help correct for the unequal access to medical care by income and race in pre-1965 America. Previous evaluations of the program have claimed that on average the eligible poor have enjoyed considerable gains in access, but that the benefits of Medicaid have not been shared equally by blacks and whites. We reexamined the evidence on differential access by race early in the program (1969) and evaluate that claim for the mature program (1976). Our evaluation is conducted within the context of multivariate models of physician and hospital utilization designed to control for a variety of socioeconomic, health status, and resource supply characteristics. While earlier evaluations overstated the extent of racial differentials in 1969, blacks who were not chronically ill had significantly lower levels of ambulatory care--both within and outside of the South. Between 1969 and 1976 all race, region, and health status groups of nonelderly Medicaid recipients experienced increases in physician visits that far outpaced those of the entire nonelderly U.S. population. By 1976 blacks clearly achieved equality with whites in Medicaid ambulatory care use. The only statistically significant shortfall we find is in hospital utilization among Southern blacks in good health.

Equitable arrangements for financing beach nourishment projects.

Abstract In this paper we develop a systematic and objective economic approach to answer two fundamental financing questions created by beach nourishment projects: (1) who should pay for these projects?, and (2) what mix of taxes or user fees should be used to assess those responsible for paying? Establishment of a logical and feasible procedure for allocating the financing burden in a way that satisfies basic standards of taxpayer equity and fairness is our basic goal. An important criterion for evaluating alternative financing options is ‘target effectiveness’, that is, the extent to which a potential revenue source produces a close match between the financing burden and the benefit distribution. Various points, with examples from a recent evaluation of proposed beach nourishment projects for several beaches along the coast of southern Delaware on the east coast of the USA, are illustrated. Our equity analysis suggests that local communities should shoulder much of the financing burden for beach nourishment projects. Beach access fees and a special assessment on properties on, or near, the beach front represent the preferred sources of funds to pay for these projects.