Copyright (c) 2008 Berkeley Electronic Press All rights reserved. http://www.bepress.com/bejeap Recent documents in The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy en-us Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:20:07 PDT 3600 http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/vol8/iss1/art15 http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/vol8/iss1/art15 Thu, 19 Jun 2008 09:44:43 PDT This study analyzes the determinants of individual subjective well-being (happiness) in Italy by estimating microeconometric happiness equations in order to examine the effects of socio-demographic characteristics and economic conditions on subjective evaluations of happiness. Consistent with the findings in other advanced countries we find that income and wealth increase happiness and that unemployment is extremely bad for subjective well-being. In addition, we obtain some novel and interesting results for Italy including the following: income obtained by public transfers has a limited impact on subjective well-being; education increases happiness, even when controlling for income; Southern residents and individuals living in large cities are less happy; and social capital makes people happier. Finally, individuals care about relative income, in the sense that their happiness is negatively influenced by the income of others in their group of reference. Our results show that several non-economic variables are extremely important for subjective well-being. Vincenzo Scoppa A13; D60; I31; I38 http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/vol8/iss1/art14 http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/vol8/iss1/art14 Tue, 17 Jun 2008 09:49:42 PDT While a substantial amount of recent attention has been paid to understanding the determinants of educational outcomes, little is known about the causal impact of the most fundamental input in the education production function - a student's study effort. In this paper, we examine the causal effect of studying on grade performance by taking advantage of unique, new data that has been collected specifically for this purpose. Important for understanding the potential impact of a wide array of education policies, the results suggest that human capital accumulation is far from predetermined at the time of college entrance. Ralph Stinebrickner Education I2 Higher Education I23 Labor and Demographic Economics J0 http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/vol8/iss1/art13 http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/vol8/iss1/art13 Tue, 17 Jun 2008 09:49:35 PDT How well do countries cope with the aftermath of natural disasters? Do international financial flows buffer countries in the wake of disasters? This paper examines the impact of hurricanes on resource flows to developing countries. Using meteorological data, I construct a time-varying storm index taking into account the fraction of a country's population exposed to storms of varying intensities. Overall, hurricanes lead to large increases in foreign aid. For other types of international financial flows, the impact of hurricanes varies according to income level. For poorer countries, hurricanes lead to increases in migrants' remittances, so that total inflows from all sources in the three years following hurricane exposure amount to roughly four-fifths of estimated damages. For richer countries, by contrast, hurricanes stimulate inflows of new lending from multilateral institutions, but offsetting declines in private financial flows are so large that the null hypothesis of zero damage replacement cannot be rejected. Dean Yang F21 F22 F34 F35 O19 Q54