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Author: Bishai, David M.
Resulting in 4 citations.
1. Bishai, David M.
Does Time Preference Change with Age?
Journal of Population Economics 17,4 (December 2004): 583-602.
Also: http://www.springerlink.com/content/cqtle60rh2ayukyd/
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Springer
Keyword(s): Age and Ageing; Educational Attainment; I.Q.; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Labor Force Participation; Labor Supply; Life Course; Racial Differences; Schooling; Time Preference

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This study looks at compensating differentials in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) to derive estimates of the levels of time preference for labor force participants in each of 15 waves of data from 1979 to 1994. With these estimates the evolution of time preference over the life course is described. Future utility among labor force participants appears to be valued more highly by subjects who are older, more schooled, white, or male. Controlling for schooling level, a higher IQ is associated with a preference for more immediate rewards. If social rates of time preference are correlated with individual rates of time preference then population aging could create intergenerational asymmetries in the social rate of time preference. This phenomenon could make the optimal investments of young populations appear selfish to future generations that are older. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Bibliography Citation
Bishai, David M. "Does Time Preference Change with Age?" Journal of Population Economics 17,4 (December 2004): 583-602.
2. Bishai, David M.
Lifecycle Changes in the Rate of Time Preference: Testing the Theory of Endogenous Preferences and Its Relevance to Adolescent Substance Use
Presented: Taiwan, Taipei, International Conference on Health Economics, March 1999
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Hopkins Population Center
Keyword(s): Adolescent Behavior; Age and Ageing; Education; Endogeneity; Fathers, Presence; Gender; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Life Course; Life Cycle Research; Religion; Religious Influences; Substance Use; Time Preference

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Economic theory indicates that because one's activities to improve health reward one in the future, persons who value the future more highly will be more prone to healthy activity. Without measures of time preference we can neither test this theory nor understand what makes people value future events more highly. Progress in this area requires a method to infer measures of time preference from the secondary datasets used in public health and economic research. Time preference in its econometric expression is the measurable forfeiting of additional goods in the present to enjoy goods in the future. The rate of time preference varies from 0 for individuals who are indifferent between present and future consumption to infinity for individuals who have placed no value on future consumption. When subjects decide to forego higher wages in the present by taking safer jobs that increase their chance of future survival they send signals about their time preference (mixed with signals about risk aversion, other job prospects, family pressures, etc.). These wage-risk tradeoffs offer scholars interested in measuring time preference the convenience of a secondary dataset, but the drawback of needing to control for the confounding and endogenous factors. This study applies econometric techniques to the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) to derive estimates of the levels of time preference for each labor force participant in each of 15 waves of data from 1979 to 1994. With these estimates I describe the evolution of time preference over the life course. I test the following hypotheses suggested by Becker and Mulligan (Becker and Mulligan 1997)in their theory of endogenous time preferences: 1)Age and Education reduce the rate of time preference; 2)Female gender and Father's Presence in the Home at age 14 reduce the rate of time preference; 3) Religious participation reduces the rate of time preference. Finally I show that subjects with a more immediate time preference are more likely to drink alcohol and conditional upon drinking are more likely to drink heavily. A policy maker with a better understanding of the determinants of time preference can design better policies that empower children to value their future well-being and thereby increase present healthy behavior.
Bibliography Citation
Bishai, David M. "Lifecycle Changes in the Rate of Time Preference: Testing the Theory of Endogenous Preferences and Its Relevance to Adolescent Substance Use." Presented: Taiwan, Taipei, International Conference on Health Economics, March 1999.
3. Smith, Patricia K.
Bogin, Barry
Bishai, David M.
Are Time Preference and Body Mass Index Associated? Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth
Economics and Human Biology 3,2 (July 2005): 259-270.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X05000286
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Ethnic Differences; Gender Differences; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Height, Height-Weight Ratios; Obesity; Racial Differences; Time Preference; Weight

The prevalence of obesity among both adults and children in the U.S. has risen to all time highs in the past two decades. We propose that an increase in the marginal rate of time preference has contributed to increasing obesity. More people are consuming more calories than they expend because they have become less willing to trade current pleasure for potential future health benefits. Accordingly, this paper explores the association between body mass index (BMI) and time preference. We use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) to test our hypothesis that time preference and BMI are positively related. We find some evidence that there is such a positive association among black and Hispanic men and black women.
Bibliography Citation
Smith, Patricia K., Barry Bogin and David M. Bishai. "Are Time Preference and Body Mass Index Associated? Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth." Economics and Human Biology 3,2 (July 2005): 259-270.
4. Weden, Margaret M.
Astone, Nan Marie
Bishai, David M.
Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Differences in Smoking Cessation Associated with Employment and Joblessness Through Young Adulthood in the US
Social Science and Medicine 62,2 (January 2006): 303-316.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953605002911
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Cigarette Use (see Smoking); Ethnic Differences; Gender Differences; Labor Force Participation; Labor Supply; Modeling, Hazard/Event History/Survival/Duration; Racial Differences; Smoking (see Cigarette Use); Women

The dynamics of labor force participation and joblessness during young adulthood influence access to social and material resources and shape exposure to different sources of psychosocial strain. Differences in these dynamics by race, ethnicity, and gender are related to changes in a behavioral determinant of poor health (tobacco use) for young adults aging into midlife. Using discrete-time hazards models, we estimate the relationship between labor force participation in the past year and smoking cessation for US adults (ages 14?21 years in 1979) followed in a population-representative sample until 1998 (i.e. the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth). We assess the unique role of racial, ethnic and gender differences in exposure, vulnerability, and reactivity to employment and joblessness by controlling for social and economic resources obtained through working and by controlling for early life factors that select individuals into certain labor force and smoking trajectories. There are three main findings: (1) joblessness is more strongly associated with persistent daily smoking among women than among men; (2) fewer social and economic resources for women out of the labor force compared to employed women explains their lower cessation rates; and (3) lower cessation among unemployed women compared to employed women can only partially be explained by these resources. These findings illustrate how differential access to work-related social and economic resources is an important mediator of poor health trajectories. Contextual factors such as social norms and psychosocial strains at work and at home may play a unique role among European American men and women in explaining gender differences in smoking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR; Copyright 2006 Elsevier]
Bibliography Citation
Weden, Margaret M., Nan Marie Astone and David M. Bishai. "Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Differences in Smoking Cessation Associated with Employment and Joblessness Through Young Adulthood in the US." Social Science and Medicine 62,2 (January 2006): 303-316.