Do good carefully: The long-term effects of low-dose DDT exposure in early childhood on education, marriage and employment.

It is well known that malaria has serious adverse effects on humans. Yet, little is known as to how dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), which is still used to control malaria, may affect human socioeconomic outcomes in the long run. Utilizing the large-scale indoor residual spraying of low-dose DDT in Taiwan in the 1950s, we estimated the long-term effects of low-dose DDT exposure in early childhood on education, marriage and employment in adulthood. Our identification hinges on the unexpected extension of DDT spraying after malaria had already been largely brought under control. We found that even at a very low dosage, DDT exposure still resulted in discernible negative effects on education and marriage. For employment, although no effect on the probability of working was detected, people exposed to more sprayings in childhood were more likely to work in the agricultural sector that typically requires less human capital.

Variations of wealth resemblance by family relationship types in modern Chinese families.

For a long time, social scientists have used correlations in social status, measured by such characteristics as schooling, income, or occupation, across family members to capture family resemblance in social status. In this study, we use millions of records from a public registry to estimate the wealth correlations among Taiwanese kinship members, from the closest parent-child pairing to the farthest kinship ties, with only 1/32 genetic relatedness. Based on this wealth correlation, we present a complete picture of economic similarity among kin members. These correlations give us a better grasp of the hitherto obscure Chinese family structure than that of mechanical genetic relatedness. We obtain statistical evidence to support the following hypotheses: Family members' wealth resemblance to male egos is stronger than to female egos, wealth correlations are larger along patrilineal lines than along matrilineal counterparts, wealthy families have larger correlations within the nuclear family members but smaller correlations outside it, and adopted children have weaker wealth resemblance with close relatives.

The impact of global budgeting on treatment intensity and outcomes.

This paper investigates the effects of global budgets on the amount of resources devoted to cardio-cerebrovascular disease patients by hospitals of different ownership types and these patients' outcomes. Theoretical models predict that hospitals have financial incentives to increase the quantity of treatments applied to patients. This is especially true for for-profit hospitals. If that's the case, it is important to examine whether the increase in treatment quantity is translated into better treatment outcomes. Our analyses take advantage of the National Health Insurance of Taiwan's implementation of global budgets for hospitals in 2002. Our data come from the National Health Insurance's claim records, covering the universe of hospitalized patients suffering acute myocardial infarction, ischemic heart disease, hemorrhagic stroke, and ischemic stroke. Regression analyses are carried out separately for government, private not-for-profit and for-profit hospitals. We find that for-profit hospitals and private not-for-profit hospitals did increase their treatment intensity for cardio-cerebrovascular disease patients after the 2002 implementation of global budgets. However, this was not accompanied by an improvement in these patients' mortality rates. This reveals a waste of medical resources and implies that aggregate expenditure caps should be supplemented by other designs to prevent resources misallocation.

Cigarette smoking and self-control.

This paper empirically studies time inconsistent preferences in the context of cigarette smoking behavior. With hyperbolic discounting, an individual has time inconsistent preferences, which give rise to a lack of self-control, i.e., she may perpetually postpone the execution of a plan. This implies that a smoker who wants to quit has a demand for control devices, e.g., a smoking ban in public areas or a hike in cigarette excise taxes. This paper empirically tests this implication, using a sample that is based on survey data from Taiwan. The estimation results indicate that a smoker's intention to quit has a positive effect on the smoker's support for smoking bans and a cigarette excise tax increase. These results lend support to the validity of the time inconsistent preferences in the context of cigarette smoking behavior. This casts doubt on the validity of the assumption that individuals have time consistent preferences in Becker and Murphy's [Becker, G.S., Murphy, K.M., 1988. A theory of rational addiction. Journal of Political Economy 96 (4), 675-700] rational addiction model.

Strategic Motives Drive Proposers to Offer Fairly in Ultimatum Games: An fMRI Study.

The hypothesis of strategic motives postulates that offering fairly in the Ultimatum Game (UG) is to avoid rejection and receive money. In this fMRI study, we used a modified UG to elucidate how proposers reached decisions of offering fairly and to what extent they considered offering selfishly with different stakes. We had proposers choose between a fair and a selfish offer with different degrees of selfishness and stake sizes. Proposers were less likely and spent more time choosing the fair offer over a slightly-selfish offer than a very selfish offer independent of stakes. Such choices evoked greater activation in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortices that typically involve in allocation of cognitive control for cost/benefit decision making. Choosing a fair offer in higher stakes evoked greater activation in the anterior cingulate gyrus (ACCg) and the areas that previously have been implicated in reward and theory of mind. Furthermore, choosing a slightly selfish offer over a fair offer evoked greater activation in the anterior cingulate sulcus, ACCg, ventral tegmental area (or substantia nigra) and anterior insular cortex signalling the higher gain and implying higher rejection risk. In conclusion, our findings favoured the hypothesis that proposers offer fairly based on the strategic motives.

Obesity and risk knowledge.

Obesity is an epidemic health problem in many developed countries, and it is an emerging public health concern in developing, transitional, and newly developed countries. The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between individuals' knowledge concerning the health risks of obesity and their tendency to be obese (as measured by the "body mass index"). Instead of assuming that obesity is a pure physiological problem as in previous studies, we allow an individual's cost/benefit evaluation to play a role. Based on survey data from Taiwan, we investigate the relationship with the quantile regression technique. The results suggest that such a relationship does exist and it is different for males and females.