Journal of Economic and Social Measurement - Volume 24, issue 1

Authors: Fishman, Gideon | Hakim, Simon | Shachmurove, Yochanan

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This paper applies household survey data to discern a pattern of, and subsequently propose preventative solutions to, suburban property crime. Specifically, 22,192 households in Greenwich, Connecticut were urged to respond to a questionnaire. The survey included questions that measure the …household’s proneness to victimization and its level of precautionary activities. The probability of victimization is estimated by applying the SAS/STAT program. The study considers the properties of the Deterrence Hypothesis and the rational behavior of burglars. The Deterrence Hypothesis is associated with the relative effectiveness of criminal justice. The focus is on the deterrence activities initiated by homeowners to reduce the probability of being burglarized. It details the results of a logistic regression analysis applied to individual households. The probability of residential burglary is calculated by accounting for the location, surroundings and attributes of the residences, as well as a variety of security precautionary measures. Show more

DOI: 10.3233/JEM-1998-0139

Citation: Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1-13, 1998

Authors: Lindberg, Laura Duberstein | Sonenstein, Freya Lund | Martinez, Gladys | Marcotte, John

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Repeated findings that men underreport their fertility in social surveys raises concerns about the usefulness of survey data collected from men. We calculate the birth rate reported by unmarried males ages 15–19 in the National Survey of Adolescent Males. We …also calculate the rate of fatherhood among adolescent males from maternal reports in the National Maternal and Infant Health Survey. Comparisons of birth rates to unmarried adolescent males, as measured by these maternal and paternal reports, show no statistically significant differences between the two sources of information. We conclude that it is possible to collect accurate fertility information from young men. Show more

DOI: 10.3233/JEM-1998-0141

Citation: Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 15-23, 1998

Authors: Cohen, Steven B.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The National Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) has been established to provide an assessment of the health care utilization, expenditures, health insurance coverage, and sources of payment for the civilian noninstitutionalized population. The 1996 MEPS sample consists of approximately 10,500 …nationally representative households that were survey participants in the 1995 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). In the design of the survey, it was recognized that the household respondent was not always the best source of information on medical expenditures, particularly with the growth of managed care. Consequently, the MEPS includes a Medical Provider Survey Component (MPC), to improve the accuracy of the national estimates of health care expenditures that are derived from the survey. The sample design selectively targets those individuals that are most likely to misreport or not possess adequate knowledge about their medical expenditures, in addition to medical events that were expected to be associated with high levels of missing or poor quality data. In addition, the design was specified to enrich the sample of health care events available as donors for imputation, and to support methodological analysis. This paper provides a summary of the analytical objectives of the MPC, in addition to a detailed discussion of the survey design that was implemented. Show more

Keywords: MEPS, medical expenditures, medical providers, validation study

DOI: 10.3233/JEM-1998-0142

Citation: Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 25-53, 1998

Authors: Oaxaca, Ronald L. | Ransom, Michael

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The delta method is used to estimate asymptotic variances for components of Oaxaca/Blinder style wage decompositions obtained from the semi-log regression models. Application of the method is illustrated with estimates of racial discrimination from the March 1988 CPS. Although developed …in the context of estimating labor market discrimination, the variance and standard error formulas readily generalize to other contexts that use decomposition methods. Show more

DOI: 10.3233/JEM-1998-0143

Citation: Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 55-61, 1998