In this paper we set out the economic grounds for restrictions on long working hours and conduct ... more In this paper we set out the economic grounds for restrictions on long working hours and conduct an empirical analysis using surveys from the perspective of behavioral economics. The results of the analysis indicate that, on a year-on-year basis, if state of health improves, the probability of working more than 60 hours per week increases significantly, but that even when state of health deteriorates there is no decrease in the probability of working long hours. Moreover, among male management personnel who ...
Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch ge... more Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your personal and scholarly purposes. You are not to copy documents for public or commercial purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence.
Using a monthly survey, this paper finds that supporters of the governing cabinet are significant... more Using a monthly survey, this paper finds that supporters of the governing cabinet are significantly happier than non-supporters throughout our sample period. We investigate the reason and examine two hypotheses: 1) happy persons support the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and 2) supporters of any governing party tend to be happy. Oaxaca decomposition analysis reveals that the difference in happiness is not attributable to the difference of attributes and personalities, rejecting hypothesis 1). On the other hand, the happiness of cabinet and anti-cabinet supporters was not significantly different after an election in which the governing party was replaced, supporting hypothesis.
This paper presents empirical evidence concerning the tough love model of intergenerational altru... more This paper presents empirical evidence concerning the tough love model of intergenerational altruism from U.S. and Japanese survey data. Our main finding is that parents' tendencies for tough love behavior depend on different measures of discount factors. We also investigate the hypotheses that parents' tendencies for tough love behavior is affected by their religious affiliations, religiosity, and their worldviews.
Using an original dataset, we investigate the determinants of individual preferences for income r... more Using an original dataset, we investigate the determinants of individual preferences for income redistribution in India. Our results suggest that the preferences of Indians for income redistribution are not really based on monetary motives. We found that people who have had negative experiences or perceptions of their future economic situation favour greater redistribution and people in a good economic (past, current, and future) condition also show a favourable attitude towards redistribution. In short, economically advantaged people seem to behave in a socially responsible manner. This 'noblesse oblige' effect can be explained mostly by prevalent social and religious beliefs.
This paper explores the effects of the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake on the wages of people in th... more This paper explores the effects of the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake on the wages of people in the area of the earthquake over the 17 years after its occurrence and identified which part of the wage distribution has been most affected by this event by comparing the wage distributions of disaster victims and non-victims. To do this, we used three decomposition methods, developed by (i) Oaxaca (1973) and Blinder (1973); (ii) DiNardo, Fortin, and Lemieux (1996) ("DFL"); and (iii) Machado and Mata (2005) and Melly (2006). Our findings are as follows. First, the Oaxaca and Blinder decomposition analysis shows that the negative impact of the earthquake still affects the mean wages of male workers. Second, the DFL decomposition analysis shows that middle-wage males would have earned more had the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake not occurred. Finally, the Machado-Mata-Melly decomposition analysis shows that the earthquake had a large, adverse impact on the wages of middle-wage males, and that their wages have been reduced since the earthquake, by 5.0-8.6%. This result is similar to that from the DFL decomposition analysis. In the case of female workers, a long-term negative impact of the earthquake was also observed as the wages of high-wage females were reduced by 8.3-13.8%.
This paper uses a unique survey of the Chinese youth to construct a panel data in which we keep t... more This paper uses a unique survey of the Chinese youth to construct a panel data in which we keep track of geographical and job mobilities. Our estimation results deliver the following major …ndings. (1) The sample individuals are highly mobile. Job quits and relocations are frequent and they are closely correlated. We …nd the job hopping to be highly productive as our estimates indicate each job quit generates more than .2 log increase in monthly wage. .(2) The migrant disadvantage in urban labor market is compensated by their higher job mobility. After four jobs, the expected earnings di¤erentials essentially disappear. We also …nd that migration and job mobility are highly selective processes. Our evidence indicates that the migrants are positively selected. (3) Job and location mobilities are highly dependent upon family back ground and personal traits which we interpret as representing unobservable characteristics associated with risk taking, active and optimistic personality, as well as the implied economic incentives to migrate and keep searching for better jobs.
We investigate the labor supply reaction to wage cuts and tax increases using a real-effort exper... more We investigate the labor supply reaction to wage cuts and tax increases using a real-effort experiment. First, subjects perform a task and receive a reward with taxes deducted. Second, the wage cut treatment reduces the wage rate and the tax increase treatment increases the tax; wage and tax remain unchanged for the control group. The real wage is equal for both treatments, and both treatments had significantly smaller increases in effort levels than the control group. The effort level change did not differ between the treatments. Therefore, the net wage illusion and tax aversion identified in previous studies are absent.
Using original web survey data, this study investigates the long-term consequences of the experie... more Using original web survey data, this study investigates the long-term consequences of the experience of group work, which is a common teaching practice. We examined the convention in the context of Japanese public elementary schools, which are considered to be less susceptible to self-selection bias, in order to improve on the research conditions of previous studies. The regression results show that the experience of group work is negatively associated with annual income and financial assets. Furthermore, we find that the experience of group work does not relate to well-being and life satisfaction and that those who experienced group work attach higher satisfaction to human relationships and less satisfaction to household economic status. From the insignificant association between group work and well-being/whole life satisfaction, it may be interpreted that the positive association with satisfaction related to human relationships offsets the negative association with satisfaction regarding one's present economic status. We also show that experience of group work is negatively associated with cognitive skills but is positively associated with altruistic and positive reciprocal behavior.
We test the equivalence of income and consumption taxes through a choice experiment. Under a give... more We test the equivalence of income and consumption taxes through a choice experiment. Under a given set of income and consumption parameters, subjects were asked to choose among an income tax of 20%, a consumption tax of 25% (which is an equivalent tax burden), a consumption tax of 22%, and a consumption tax of 20%. Our results showed that subjects prefer income tax to consumption tax when the nominal consumption tax rate is higher than the nominal income tax rate. However, subjects tend to prefer consumption tax to income tax when the nominal tax rates are identical. Our result, that subjects prefer income tax to consumption tax despite a higher tax burden, implies the consumption tax miscalculation bias. The consumption tax miscalculation bias is one where subjects miscalculate the amount of consumption tax as if it is declared by tax inclusive, as in the case of income tax, despite consumption tax being tax exclusive. If the income tax burden is equivalent to the consumption tax burden, subjects prefer income tax. This result implies that income and consumption taxes are not equivalent due to the consumption tax miscalculation bias.
There are various methods by which people can express subjective evaluations quantitatively. For ... more There are various methods by which people can express subjective evaluations quantitatively. For example, happiness can be measured on a scale from 1 to 10, and has been suggested as a measure of economic policy. However, there is resistance to these types of measurement from economists, who often regard welfare to be a cardinal, unbounded quantity. It is unclear whether there are differences between subjective evaluation reported on ordinal, bounded scales and on cardinal, unbounded scales. To answer this question, we developed functional magnetic resonance imaging experimental tasks for reporting happiness from monetary gain and the perception of visual stimulus. Subjects tended to report higher values when they used ordinal scales instead of cardinal scales. There were differences in neural activation between ordinal and cardinal reporting scales. The posterior parietal area showed greater activation when subjects used an ordinal scale instead of a cardinal scale. Importantly, the striatum exhibited greater activation when asked to report happiness on an ordinal scale than when asked to report on a cardinal scale. The finding that ordinal (bounded) scales are associated with higher reported happiness and greater activation in the reward system shows that overstatement bias in happiness data must be considered.
This paper examines the effects of school curricula on subsequent preference formation. The estim... more This paper examines the effects of school curricula on subsequent preference formation. The estimation results, using Japanese data, show that the actual curriculum at public elementary schools varies widely from area to area and is associated with preference formation. Specifically, pupils who have experienced participatory/cooperative learning practices are more likely to be altruistic, cooperative with others, reciprocal, and have national pride. In contrast, the influence of education emphasizing more on anti-competitive practices is negatively associated with these attributes. Such contrasts can also be seen for other preferences regarding government policies and a market economy. The findings imply that elementary school education, as a place for early socialization, plays an important role in the formation of lifelong social preferences.
Recent studies in behavioral economics and neuroeconomics have revealed that emotion affects impu... more Recent studies in behavioral economics and neuroeconomics have revealed that emotion affects impulsivity in intertemporal choice. We examined the roles of socio-emotional status (i.e., perceived stress, depression, quality of sleep, loneliness) in temporal discounting behavior by Japanese non-smokers in a generation-specific manner (20-70 s) with a relatively large sample size (N = 3450). We observed that 1) both men and women are the most impulsive in their 60 s; 2) education has a negative impact on impulsivity in men aged 40-49 and women aged 50-59; 3) perceived stress has a negative impact on impulsivity in men aged 60-69; and 4) sleeplessness has negative and positive impacts on impulsivity in men aged 40-49 and women aged 30-39, respectively. Biological and social factors underlying observed findings are discussed.
, and seminar participants at the 2012 Trans-Pacific Labor Seminar in Hawaii for their helpful co... more , and seminar participants at the 2012 Trans-Pacific Labor Seminar in Hawaii for their helpful comments. All remaining errors are our own. We also thank Kiyoko Murahima and Shizuka Yamagiwa for their assistance. Authors acknowledge a research grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Okudaira acknowledges a research grant from Okayama University.
After severe disasters, persons living not only in the directly affected areas, but also in dista... more After severe disasters, persons living not only in the directly affected areas, but also in distant areas could be seriously affected thorough images of the disaster on television and in newspapers. Hence, it can be difficult to define qualified beneficiaries for policy compensation in terms of psychological suffering. Building on the case of Great East Japan Earthquake, we appraise psychological suffering from disaster-related news through the experienced utility approach. We take advantage of the serendipitous timing of our original nationwide weekly panel survey that became a timely investigation of subjective well-being in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. Although a pale was cast over the whole society, we found that there was a robust and large geographical heterogeneity between the disaster area and non-disaster areas in mental costs. This finding may capture the focusing effect, suggesting that resources for compensating mental suffering should be concentrated on persons living in the disaster area.
Wages of Non-regular Workers: Compensation for employment insecurity and lack of work flexibility
We examine survey-based evidence on the desired wage compensation of non-regular workers in respo... more We examine survey-based evidence on the desired wage compensation of non-regular workers in response to employment insecurity and work flexibility. Comparing the compensation rate by work status, contract workers ask for the highest rate for employment insecurity while part time workers ask for the highest rate for work flexibility. We investigate the determinants of the compensation. Female, aged (over age 50), and risk averse workers are likely to ask for more compensation. Non-regular workers who have experienced regular work or are looking for regular work ask for more compensation for job insecurity, while part time workers ask for more compensation for work flexibility. Estimating wage equations of non-regular workers shows that part time workers or married female workers received negative wage premiums, which can be interpreted as evidence consistent with work-life balance from the viewpoint of compensating wage differentials. The effect of job insecurity on wages is not clear.
Humans typically discount future gains more than losses. This phenomenon is referred to as the "s... more Humans typically discount future gains more than losses. This phenomenon is referred to as the "sign effect" in experimental and behavioral economics. Although recent studies have reported associations between the sign effect and important social problems, such as obesity and incurring multiple debts, the biological basis for this phenomenon remains poorly understood. Here, we hypothesized that enhanced loss-related neural processing in magnitude and/or delay representation are causes of the sign effect. We examined participants performing intertemporal choice tasks involving future gains or losses and compared the brain activity of those who exhibited the sign effect and those who did not. When predicting future losses, significant differences were apparent between the two participant groups in terms of striatal activity representing delay length and in insular activity representing sensitivity to magnitude. Furthermore, participants with the sign effect exhibited a greater insular response to the magnitude of loss than to that of gain, and also a greater striatal response to the delay of loss than to that of gain. These findings may provide a new biological perspective for the development of novel treatments and preventive measures for social problems associated with the sign effect.
Neuroscience Research 68S (2010) e335-e446 weaned (16 weeks of age) and late-weaned (30 days) ani... more Neuroscience Research 68S (2010) e335-e446 weaned (16 weeks of age) and late-weaned (30 days) animals with regard to the electrophysiological properties of this pathway, we stimulated the medial prefrontal cortex at the test intensity that evoked about 60% of maximum response of the field potential in the basolateral amygdala of SD rats under urethane anesthesia In both groups, paired-pulse facilitation seemed higher at the 50-ms interstimulus interval than at 25 or 100 ms and varied significantly across the intervals (one-way repeated-measures ANOVA). Furthermore, the facilitation was significantly lower in the early-weaned group (post-hoc analysis). Between the two groups, there was no difference in the tested stimulus intensity, the stimulus intensities that induced the minimum and maximum responses, or the first-response magnitude to the paired stimulation at all intervals. These results suggest that deprivation of motherinfant interaction in the late lactating period decreases the synaptic efficacy against neural pulses on the prefrontal-amygdala pathway.
In this paper we set out the economic grounds for restrictions on long working hours and conduct ... more In this paper we set out the economic grounds for restrictions on long working hours and conduct an empirical analysis using surveys from the perspective of behavioral economics. The results of the analysis indicate that, on a year-on-year basis, if state of health improves, the probability of working more than 60 hours per week increases significantly, but that even when state of health deteriorates there is no decrease in the probability of working long hours. Moreover, among male management personnel who ...
Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch ge... more Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your personal and scholarly purposes. You are not to copy documents for public or commercial purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence.
Using a monthly survey, this paper finds that supporters of the governing cabinet are significant... more Using a monthly survey, this paper finds that supporters of the governing cabinet are significantly happier than non-supporters throughout our sample period. We investigate the reason and examine two hypotheses: 1) happy persons support the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and 2) supporters of any governing party tend to be happy. Oaxaca decomposition analysis reveals that the difference in happiness is not attributable to the difference of attributes and personalities, rejecting hypothesis 1). On the other hand, the happiness of cabinet and anti-cabinet supporters was not significantly different after an election in which the governing party was replaced, supporting hypothesis.
This paper presents empirical evidence concerning the tough love model of intergenerational altru... more This paper presents empirical evidence concerning the tough love model of intergenerational altruism from U.S. and Japanese survey data. Our main finding is that parents' tendencies for tough love behavior depend on different measures of discount factors. We also investigate the hypotheses that parents' tendencies for tough love behavior is affected by their religious affiliations, religiosity, and their worldviews.
Using an original dataset, we investigate the determinants of individual preferences for income r... more Using an original dataset, we investigate the determinants of individual preferences for income redistribution in India. Our results suggest that the preferences of Indians for income redistribution are not really based on monetary motives. We found that people who have had negative experiences or perceptions of their future economic situation favour greater redistribution and people in a good economic (past, current, and future) condition also show a favourable attitude towards redistribution. In short, economically advantaged people seem to behave in a socially responsible manner. This 'noblesse oblige' effect can be explained mostly by prevalent social and religious beliefs.
This paper explores the effects of the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake on the wages of people in th... more This paper explores the effects of the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake on the wages of people in the area of the earthquake over the 17 years after its occurrence and identified which part of the wage distribution has been most affected by this event by comparing the wage distributions of disaster victims and non-victims. To do this, we used three decomposition methods, developed by (i) Oaxaca (1973) and Blinder (1973); (ii) DiNardo, Fortin, and Lemieux (1996) ("DFL"); and (iii) Machado and Mata (2005) and Melly (2006). Our findings are as follows. First, the Oaxaca and Blinder decomposition analysis shows that the negative impact of the earthquake still affects the mean wages of male workers. Second, the DFL decomposition analysis shows that middle-wage males would have earned more had the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake not occurred. Finally, the Machado-Mata-Melly decomposition analysis shows that the earthquake had a large, adverse impact on the wages of middle-wage males, and that their wages have been reduced since the earthquake, by 5.0-8.6%. This result is similar to that from the DFL decomposition analysis. In the case of female workers, a long-term negative impact of the earthquake was also observed as the wages of high-wage females were reduced by 8.3-13.8%.
This paper uses a unique survey of the Chinese youth to construct a panel data in which we keep t... more This paper uses a unique survey of the Chinese youth to construct a panel data in which we keep track of geographical and job mobilities. Our estimation results deliver the following major …ndings. (1) The sample individuals are highly mobile. Job quits and relocations are frequent and they are closely correlated. We …nd the job hopping to be highly productive as our estimates indicate each job quit generates more than .2 log increase in monthly wage. .(2) The migrant disadvantage in urban labor market is compensated by their higher job mobility. After four jobs, the expected earnings di¤erentials essentially disappear. We also …nd that migration and job mobility are highly selective processes. Our evidence indicates that the migrants are positively selected. (3) Job and location mobilities are highly dependent upon family back ground and personal traits which we interpret as representing unobservable characteristics associated with risk taking, active and optimistic personality, as well as the implied economic incentives to migrate and keep searching for better jobs.
We investigate the labor supply reaction to wage cuts and tax increases using a real-effort exper... more We investigate the labor supply reaction to wage cuts and tax increases using a real-effort experiment. First, subjects perform a task and receive a reward with taxes deducted. Second, the wage cut treatment reduces the wage rate and the tax increase treatment increases the tax; wage and tax remain unchanged for the control group. The real wage is equal for both treatments, and both treatments had significantly smaller increases in effort levels than the control group. The effort level change did not differ between the treatments. Therefore, the net wage illusion and tax aversion identified in previous studies are absent.
Using original web survey data, this study investigates the long-term consequences of the experie... more Using original web survey data, this study investigates the long-term consequences of the experience of group work, which is a common teaching practice. We examined the convention in the context of Japanese public elementary schools, which are considered to be less susceptible to self-selection bias, in order to improve on the research conditions of previous studies. The regression results show that the experience of group work is negatively associated with annual income and financial assets. Furthermore, we find that the experience of group work does not relate to well-being and life satisfaction and that those who experienced group work attach higher satisfaction to human relationships and less satisfaction to household economic status. From the insignificant association between group work and well-being/whole life satisfaction, it may be interpreted that the positive association with satisfaction related to human relationships offsets the negative association with satisfaction regarding one's present economic status. We also show that experience of group work is negatively associated with cognitive skills but is positively associated with altruistic and positive reciprocal behavior.
We test the equivalence of income and consumption taxes through a choice experiment. Under a give... more We test the equivalence of income and consumption taxes through a choice experiment. Under a given set of income and consumption parameters, subjects were asked to choose among an income tax of 20%, a consumption tax of 25% (which is an equivalent tax burden), a consumption tax of 22%, and a consumption tax of 20%. Our results showed that subjects prefer income tax to consumption tax when the nominal consumption tax rate is higher than the nominal income tax rate. However, subjects tend to prefer consumption tax to income tax when the nominal tax rates are identical. Our result, that subjects prefer income tax to consumption tax despite a higher tax burden, implies the consumption tax miscalculation bias. The consumption tax miscalculation bias is one where subjects miscalculate the amount of consumption tax as if it is declared by tax inclusive, as in the case of income tax, despite consumption tax being tax exclusive. If the income tax burden is equivalent to the consumption tax burden, subjects prefer income tax. This result implies that income and consumption taxes are not equivalent due to the consumption tax miscalculation bias.
There are various methods by which people can express subjective evaluations quantitatively. For ... more There are various methods by which people can express subjective evaluations quantitatively. For example, happiness can be measured on a scale from 1 to 10, and has been suggested as a measure of economic policy. However, there is resistance to these types of measurement from economists, who often regard welfare to be a cardinal, unbounded quantity. It is unclear whether there are differences between subjective evaluation reported on ordinal, bounded scales and on cardinal, unbounded scales. To answer this question, we developed functional magnetic resonance imaging experimental tasks for reporting happiness from monetary gain and the perception of visual stimulus. Subjects tended to report higher values when they used ordinal scales instead of cardinal scales. There were differences in neural activation between ordinal and cardinal reporting scales. The posterior parietal area showed greater activation when subjects used an ordinal scale instead of a cardinal scale. Importantly, the striatum exhibited greater activation when asked to report happiness on an ordinal scale than when asked to report on a cardinal scale. The finding that ordinal (bounded) scales are associated with higher reported happiness and greater activation in the reward system shows that overstatement bias in happiness data must be considered.
This paper examines the effects of school curricula on subsequent preference formation. The estim... more This paper examines the effects of school curricula on subsequent preference formation. The estimation results, using Japanese data, show that the actual curriculum at public elementary schools varies widely from area to area and is associated with preference formation. Specifically, pupils who have experienced participatory/cooperative learning practices are more likely to be altruistic, cooperative with others, reciprocal, and have national pride. In contrast, the influence of education emphasizing more on anti-competitive practices is negatively associated with these attributes. Such contrasts can also be seen for other preferences regarding government policies and a market economy. The findings imply that elementary school education, as a place for early socialization, plays an important role in the formation of lifelong social preferences.
Recent studies in behavioral economics and neuroeconomics have revealed that emotion affects impu... more Recent studies in behavioral economics and neuroeconomics have revealed that emotion affects impulsivity in intertemporal choice. We examined the roles of socio-emotional status (i.e., perceived stress, depression, quality of sleep, loneliness) in temporal discounting behavior by Japanese non-smokers in a generation-specific manner (20-70 s) with a relatively large sample size (N = 3450). We observed that 1) both men and women are the most impulsive in their 60 s; 2) education has a negative impact on impulsivity in men aged 40-49 and women aged 50-59; 3) perceived stress has a negative impact on impulsivity in men aged 60-69; and 4) sleeplessness has negative and positive impacts on impulsivity in men aged 40-49 and women aged 30-39, respectively. Biological and social factors underlying observed findings are discussed.
, and seminar participants at the 2012 Trans-Pacific Labor Seminar in Hawaii for their helpful co... more , and seminar participants at the 2012 Trans-Pacific Labor Seminar in Hawaii for their helpful comments. All remaining errors are our own. We also thank Kiyoko Murahima and Shizuka Yamagiwa for their assistance. Authors acknowledge a research grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Okudaira acknowledges a research grant from Okayama University.
After severe disasters, persons living not only in the directly affected areas, but also in dista... more After severe disasters, persons living not only in the directly affected areas, but also in distant areas could be seriously affected thorough images of the disaster on television and in newspapers. Hence, it can be difficult to define qualified beneficiaries for policy compensation in terms of psychological suffering. Building on the case of Great East Japan Earthquake, we appraise psychological suffering from disaster-related news through the experienced utility approach. We take advantage of the serendipitous timing of our original nationwide weekly panel survey that became a timely investigation of subjective well-being in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. Although a pale was cast over the whole society, we found that there was a robust and large geographical heterogeneity between the disaster area and non-disaster areas in mental costs. This finding may capture the focusing effect, suggesting that resources for compensating mental suffering should be concentrated on persons living in the disaster area.
Wages of Non-regular Workers: Compensation for employment insecurity and lack of work flexibility
We examine survey-based evidence on the desired wage compensation of non-regular workers in respo... more We examine survey-based evidence on the desired wage compensation of non-regular workers in response to employment insecurity and work flexibility. Comparing the compensation rate by work status, contract workers ask for the highest rate for employment insecurity while part time workers ask for the highest rate for work flexibility. We investigate the determinants of the compensation. Female, aged (over age 50), and risk averse workers are likely to ask for more compensation. Non-regular workers who have experienced regular work or are looking for regular work ask for more compensation for job insecurity, while part time workers ask for more compensation for work flexibility. Estimating wage equations of non-regular workers shows that part time workers or married female workers received negative wage premiums, which can be interpreted as evidence consistent with work-life balance from the viewpoint of compensating wage differentials. The effect of job insecurity on wages is not clear.
Humans typically discount future gains more than losses. This phenomenon is referred to as the "s... more Humans typically discount future gains more than losses. This phenomenon is referred to as the "sign effect" in experimental and behavioral economics. Although recent studies have reported associations between the sign effect and important social problems, such as obesity and incurring multiple debts, the biological basis for this phenomenon remains poorly understood. Here, we hypothesized that enhanced loss-related neural processing in magnitude and/or delay representation are causes of the sign effect. We examined participants performing intertemporal choice tasks involving future gains or losses and compared the brain activity of those who exhibited the sign effect and those who did not. When predicting future losses, significant differences were apparent between the two participant groups in terms of striatal activity representing delay length and in insular activity representing sensitivity to magnitude. Furthermore, participants with the sign effect exhibited a greater insular response to the magnitude of loss than to that of gain, and also a greater striatal response to the delay of loss than to that of gain. These findings may provide a new biological perspective for the development of novel treatments and preventive measures for social problems associated with the sign effect.
Neuroscience Research 68S (2010) e335-e446 weaned (16 weeks of age) and late-weaned (30 days) ani... more Neuroscience Research 68S (2010) e335-e446 weaned (16 weeks of age) and late-weaned (30 days) animals with regard to the electrophysiological properties of this pathway, we stimulated the medial prefrontal cortex at the test intensity that evoked about 60% of maximum response of the field potential in the basolateral amygdala of SD rats under urethane anesthesia In both groups, paired-pulse facilitation seemed higher at the 50-ms interstimulus interval than at 25 or 100 ms and varied significantly across the intervals (one-way repeated-measures ANOVA). Furthermore, the facilitation was significantly lower in the early-weaned group (post-hoc analysis). Between the two groups, there was no difference in the tested stimulus intensity, the stimulus intensities that induced the minimum and maximum responses, or the first-response magnitude to the paired stimulation at all intervals. These results suggest that deprivation of motherinfant interaction in the late lactating period decreases the synaptic efficacy against neural pulses on the prefrontal-amygdala pathway.
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Papers by Fumio Ohtake