The existing superstar model (Rosen 1981) does not require imperfect substitutes and explains the convexity of total earnings with respect to talent due to higher output for those with the most talent. We develop a model that explains why per unit earnings (wages or prices) would increase at an increasing rate in talent. Imperfect substitution results due to the probabilistic nature of producti...

African-American consumers differ markedly from their Caucasian counterparts in terms of financial product preferences, product research, and investment asset portfolio composition. This study examines some of the principal differences between African-American and Caucasian households in evaluating and purchasing investment assets and explores differences in asset holdings between the two racia...

This paper is about income and poverty dynamics and their socioeconomic correlates. The first half of the paper aims to establish some of the salient facts for Britain, applying the pioneering methods of Bane and Ellwood (1986). Important for poverty dynamics are changes in labour earnings from persons other than the household head, changes in non-labour income (including benefits), and changes...

This paper incorporates egocentric comparisons into a human capital accumulation model and studies the evolution of positive self image over time. The paper shows that the process of human capital accumulation together with egocentric comparisons imply that positive self image of a cohort is first increasing and then decreasing over time. Additionally, the paper finds that positive self image: ...

This paper studies differences in inequality perceptions, distributional norms, and redistributive preferences between East and West Germany. As expected, there are substantial differences with respect to all three of these measures. Surprisingly, however, differences in distributional norms are much smaller than differences with respect to inequality perceptions or redistributive preferences. ...

The variance in the logarithms of per capita GDP in purchasing-power-parity prices increased in the world from 1960 to 1968 and decreased since the mid 1970s. In the later period the convergence in intercountry incomes more than offset any increase in within country inequality. Approximately two-thirds of this measure of world inequality is intercountry, three-tenths interhousehold within count...

The piezoelectric response of silicon diaphragms covered with sputter-deposited PbZr0.45Ti0.55O3 (PZT) films has been investigated in view of their application in ultrasonic micro-actuators. The behaviour of resonance frequencies and quasistatic deflections has been studied as a function of membrane thickness and d.c. bias. The total stress in the films and the piezoelectric constant, d31, have...

A forward second-harmonic scattering method for determining the second-order susceptibility coefficients of ZnO nanorods on the order of 100 nm in diameter is presented. The long coherence length and strong intensity of the forward second-harmonic signal allow for a simple theoretical model to match the experimental measurements; this results in getting accurate values for the second-order susc...

In the measurement of inequality, adjustments for differences across households in their demographic composition and in the price regimes they face are usually very simple. Often, nominal expenditure (or income) is adjusted with an expenditure-independent price deflator and a price-independent equivalence scale. I show that using more flexible expendituredependent price deflators and price-depe...

This paper is motivated by the lack of any obvious relationship between aggregate poverty and unemployment in Great Britain. We derive a framework based on individuals’ risks of unemployment and poverty, and how these vary over the economic cycle. Analysing the British Household Panel Survey for 1991-96, we are able to square the micro evidence that unemployment matters for poverty with the mac...