where Y is the logarithm of some measure of the child’s economic well-being, X is the logarithm of a similar measure of the parent’s economic well-being, and the estimated parameter β is the elasticity of the child’s economic well-being with respect to the parent’s well-being. A value of β close to 0 indicates complete intergenerational mobility; a value close to 1 indicates no mobility. Econom...

Dematerialization, represented by declining consumption per GDP of energy or of goods, offers some hope for rising environmental quality with development. The declining proportion of income spent on staples as affluence grows, which income elasticity <1.0 measures, makes dematerialization widespread. Further, as learning improves efficiency of resource use, the intensity of environmental impact...

This paper estimates the income elasticity of health care expenditures using annual data on health spending by state in the U.S. from 1966-2009. Panel stationarity tests incorporating structural breaks in the levels and trends in Health Care Expenditures and Disposable Personal Income yield inconsistent results, with stationarity rejected for HCE but not for DPI. Regression results using levels...

In this paper, the subsidies accruing to owner-occupiers in the Newcastle travel-towork area (TTWA) for the period 1985-87 is examined. Data at the micro level from two building societies are used to produce estimates of the impact of mortgage-interest tax relief at source and the nontaxation of imputed rent. The overall level of subsidy is shown to have fallen through time and the greatest rel...

This study draws on a survey of urban Chinese workers in 2005 to estimate the private returns to education and estimate the income elasticity of education. Differences in the rates of return to schooling are examined between gender and between age groups. The estimated returns to schooling are found to be higher than those documented in existing studies for the mid 1980s to late 1990s. In parti...