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Single-mother families with never-married mothers as head of the family are increasing in number. The mothers are young and the families are poor. It is uncertain if the socioeconomic status of the families would improve as the mothers grow older and become employed. The future looks gloomy for these families since most of the mothers have not finished their high school studies and only half of them are presently working.

The paper focuses on the effect of various forms of parental assistance (i.e. financial support to meet living expenses, purchase of housing, funding education) on living standards (i.e., possession of material goods). Analysis of the data from the Israeli sample reveals a considerable variation among families with regard to parental support. The data demonstrate that support is more prevalent among families of high socioeconomic origin (and of smaller size) than among families of low socioeconomic origin. Parental support, in turn, significantly affects current standard of living (i.e. number of household goods in possession of the family). That is, families that have benefited from extensive support are more likely to maintain higher living standards net of social resources and labor market outcomes. The effect of support for education is mediated via labor market outcomes, whereas the impact of support toward purchase of home is direct and net of labor market rewards. The findings revealed by the analysis suggest, rather strongly, that parental transfers not only reproduce but may actually increase economic inequality across generations. The meaning of findings are discussed in light of theories of social stratification and inequality.

James F. Ragan, Jr. [*] Bernt Bratsberg [+] For more than 20 years, unions have been trading cost-of-living adjustment clauses (COLAs) for other forms of compensation. Various explanations have been [...]

Key Words intergenerational transfers, inequality, living standards * Abstract This paper reviews current information on wealth trends, with particular attention to the role of household wealth in the stratification system. [...]

A study was conducted to examine the potential importance of accounting for preference heterogeneity in living standards. The data used by J. Peter Neary in a previous study are analyzed, and findings indicate that the data on 11 commodity groups in 60 countries are rationalizable by a single non-homothetic utility function, but not by any homothetic utility function.

Research is presented describing the methods used to measure the standard of living in the newly independent former Russian state of Kyrgyz.

The Analysis of Geographic Living-Cost Differentials: A Brief Empirical Note The determinants of geographic living-cost differentials in the United States have been examined extensively (cf. Cebula 1980; Cobas 1978; Grady [...]

Stature is examined in colonial America to analyze its implications on the living standards, the growth process and height-income relationships. Genetics have always been considered as determinants of height but studies across populations have shown that environmental factors also affect height. Data were taken from military muster rolls, slave manifests, advertisements for runaway slaves and registrations of free blacks. Results indicate that colonial Americans were tall and poor but had relatively good health which enhanced their material standard of living.

Research indicates that baby boomers born between 1955 and 1964 will probably have a lower standard of living than those born between 1946 and 1954. Some 43.2% of 25-to-29-year-olds owned homes in 1976, compared to only 35.9% in 1987.

Research on limited opportunity farm households was gathered during the 1988 Farm Costs and Returns Survey. Limited opportunity households are farmsteads who grosses and average of $100,000, farm assets worth below $150,000 and whose income is below the poverty line. Also, they have had less chances to incure debt. Government commodity programs are ineffectual since a majority do not participate in them and traditional farm policies do not adequately help these farmholds.

The Sato-Vartia index is believed to be on a par with the Fisher ideal index in terms of its ability to satisfy index number axioms or tests. Yet we show that this index fails to satisfy the monotonicity axiom, and we provide formulas for the point at which a Sato-Vartia price index becomes non-monotonic in prices. In fact, requiring monotonicity for initial as well as final prices rules out not only the Sato Vartia index but all log-change price indexes whose weights depend upon initial or final expenditure shares. Since cost of living index theory leads naturally to the Sato Vartia index, as well as to other log-change indexes, there is an irreconcilable tension between the standard axiomatics for indexes, and cost of living index theory. Keywords: CES; Cost of living index; Tornqvist index; Monotonicity

I present and test the hypothesis that the cost of living (COL) positively influences the labor force participation (LFP) of married women. Based on housing values and regional variables, I first predict COL for a sample of 150 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) using a smaller subsample for which geographically comparable family budget data are available for 1980. Results from estimating a logistic LFP model using census MSA data confirm my hypothesis and suggest that COL embodies locality-specific amenities rather than 'pure' prices. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

This paper uses microdata from the 1992 Statistics Canada Family Expenditure Survey to provide evidence that male and female incomes do not always exert identical influences on household expenditures. The novelty of the paper lies in its demonstration that, while incomes may be pooled for some categories of consumption (e.g. housing), the income pooling hypothesis must be rejected for others. We also go beyond simply rejecting the pooling hypothesis to ask how male versus female income is used. Our results stress the on-going importance of traditional gender roles. For example, we find that expenditures on child care increase only with women's incomes - higher male income is not associated with higher expenditure on child care even when both spouses are full-time, full-year paid workers.