Reduction of Working Time: Does It Lead to a Healthy Lifestyle?

I examine whether working hours have a causal effect on the health behaviors of workers. In assessing the causal relationship, I estimate fixed-effects instrumental variable models by using exogenous variation in adopting a reduced workweek in South Korea as an instrument for work hours. The estimation results reveal that shortening work hours induces individuals to exercise regularly and decreases the likelihood of smoking, with more pronounced effects for heavy smokers. While a work-hour reduction substantially increases the probability of drinking participation, it does not significantly affect the likelihood of frequent or daily drinking habits. In addition, the effect of a work-hour reduction on regular exercise is salient among women and older groups, and the effect on smoking behaviors is more pronounced among men and middle-aged groups. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Divorce as risky behavior.

Given that divorce often represents a high-stakes income gamble, we ask how individual levels of risk tolerance affect the decision to divorce. We extend the orthodox divorce model by assuming that individuals are risk averse, that marriage is risky, and that divorce is even riskier. The model predicts that conditional on the expected gains to marriage and divorce, the probability of divorce increases with relative risk tolerance because risk averse individuals require compensation for the additional risk that is inherent in divorce. To implement the model empirically, we use data for first-married women and men from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to estimate a probit model of divorce in which a measure of risk tolerance is among the covariates. The estimates reveal that a 1-point increase in risk tolerance raises the predicted probability of divorce by 4.3% for a representative man and by 11.4% for a representative woman. These findings are consistent with the notion that divorce entails a greater income gamble for women than for men.

Effects of phosphorus fertilizer supplementation on processing quality and functional food ingredients in tomato.

Even though several types of phosphorus fertilizers are used in crop production, the influence of phosphorus on produce quality is not well understood. Several quality attributes of tomato juice were analyzed in relation to phosphorus supplementation during a three-year field study (2000-2002). In addition to the recommended phosphorus fertilization, phosphorus supplementations, either through soil (low and high) or through foliar spray (hydrophos, seniphos), were tested. In general, soil and foliar phosphorus supplementation did not provide a statistically significant increase in yield. Tomato juice was evaluated for various quality characteristics including pH, titratable acidity, precipitate weight ratio, total solids, serum viscosity, Brookfield viscosity, color, lycopene levels, vitamin C, and flavor volatiles. Changes observed in several quality parameters were marginal, statistically insignificant and influenced by the season. Therefore, it appears that phosphorus supplementation may not significantly affect the processing quality parameters in tomato fruits.

Effects of phosphorus fertilizer supplementation on antioxidant enzyme activities in tomato fruits.

The effects of soil and foliar phosphorus supplementation on the activities and levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD), guaiacol peroxidase (POX), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) in tomato fruits were evaluated by determining enzyme activities and isoenzyme analysis. Both protein levels and enzyme activities varied depending on the variety and season. In general, phosphorus supplementation did not alter SOD, POX, and APX activities significantly;however, some treatments showed season- and stage-specific enhancement in activities as noticed with hydrophos and seniphos supplementation. Three different SOD isozymes were observed, and these isozymes showed very similar staining intensities in response to P application and during the three developmental stages studied. Two major isozymes of POX and two different APX isozymes were observed at all the developmental stages. The results suggest that antioxidant enzyme activities may be influenced by the availability of phosphorus, but are subject to considerable variation depending on the developmental stage and the season.