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We examine the relationship between unemployment insurance generosity and reported intimate partner violence in the U.S. by leveraging the staggered adoption of the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program, which increased unemployment insurance payments by $600 per week in 2020. Using detailed nationwide police report data, we find that states that implemented this program reported 9% more cases of intimate partner violence (IPV) than states which had not yet implemented the program, driven primarily by increases in aggravated assault, intimidation, and sexual assault. This is consistent with prior evidence on changes in government transfers and IPV. These results are not explained by local differences in unemployment, sheltering in place, economic impact payments, COVID-19 case rates, or temperature. We also find a decrease in total reported IPV against men, but more serious offenses increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractUsing data from the China Household Finance Survey spanning 2015–2019, we investigate the relationship between family involvement and self-employment survival. Instrumental variables are used to address the potential endogeneity of family involvement. We show that family involvement is crucial in reducing self-employment exit. This significant effect is more pronounced in elderly self-employed and self-employed with children aged 0–5. The underlying mechanisms reveal that family members’ participation in self-employment flexibly allocates idle household labor and improves the household employment rate. Meanwhile, self-employment with family involvement may have better access to credit and better performance, thus enhancing self-employment survival. Our findings are validated by robustness checks, including a discrete time complementary log–log model and estimations using alternative measurements of family involvement and self-employment exit. Our study has useful implications for policy-makers to stimulate family involvement to promote self-employment survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An individual's financial situation positively impacts her subjective well-being (SWB) according to the literature. However, most existing studies focus solely on income, neglecting other aspects of an individual's financial situation such as wealth. In this paper, we empirically examine the relationship between SWB, income, household wealth, and its components. Additionally, we explore the significance of one's wealth relative to others' for SWB. Our contribution expands the limited literature on absolute and relative wealth and SWB by utilizing unique microdata from a German wealth survey, the German Panel on Household Finances (PHF). Our findings indicate that both assets and debts, alongside income, are associated with an individual's SWB. In particular, a similar relative increase in financial assets is associated with a greater increase in SWB than the same percentage increase in real assets, and SWB decreases as the level of unsecured debt increases. Furthermore, individuals tend to experience decreased SWB when comparing themselves to others with more assets or less debt. Interestingly, we observe divergent effects of relative wealth on SWB among younger and older individuals. These results underscore the significance of considering wealth, in addition to income, when analyzing determinants of SWB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis study aims to analyze and evaluate the influence of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) and perceived value on green purchase intention in Vietnam, with the belief that it plays an intermediary role. The article uses the linear structural model (SEM) to analyze and test hypotheses by surveying 664 consumers in the big cities of Vietnam. The results have shown that eWOM, perceived value, and trust positively affect green purchase intention, in which case eWOM and perceived value make important contributions to the formation of consumer confidence. These findings help managers step up awareness campaigns, encouraging consumers to share useful eWOM information to improve people’s purchase intentions.

We study the socio-economic determinants of perceptions toward intimate partner violence (IPV), utilizing a novel dataset covering eight countries: Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Latvia, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Ukraine. We identify factors that are correlated with perceptions of violence in transition countries and contrast them with the results obtained for Sweden, a non-transition country characterized by higher levels of gender equality and less conservative social norms. Within transition countries we also explore the specificities of former countries of the Soviet Union (FSU) and Poland. Our analysis shows significant linkages between demographic, social and economic variables and the likelihood of identifying abusive behaviour, especially in transition countries. Our findings suggest that, in transition countries, action can be taken to partially offset more conservative social norms and, potentially, contribute to changing social norms in the longer term. These actions should be tailored to the specific national context.

An understanding over potential consumers’ openness and need for a product, as well as their reservations and expectations, is essential for launching a new product, ‘clean meat’ not being an exception. Research has been conducted in terms of attitudes, perception, and reservations, but most often in forms of analysing declarations rather than actual observations of consumer behaviour. The aim of the study was to assess consumer attitudes towards ‘clean meat’, in particular acceptance, perception, barriers, and factors influencing attitudes towards ‘clean meat’. The study was voluntary, conducted using online survey and addressed to respondents up to the age of 55 years. The research sample consisted of 418 respondents, representing a diversified sociodemographic profile. The results of the survey showed that for many respondents meat was an important part of their diet and eaten frequently. A majority of the respondents were not aware of the meaning of the expression ‘clean meat’, though after a brief introduction to the product, a majority expressed being open to trying it. Availability, taste, and higher price were identified as the biggest barriers against trying ‘clean meat’, and potential of the invention, interest aroused, and its perceived benefit for the environment were the qualities most associated with this invention.

The empirical link between education and consumption varies depending on contextual factors. Some studies have sought to find out the relationship between education and environmental concerns. Evidence shows that education levels might significantly impact environmental actions. Still, some research indicates that the influence of education might not considerably affect green attitudes or depend on various contextual factors. This study explores whether the education level of Croatian consumers influences their attitudes toward environmental care, recycling, and waste disposal. It aims to determine whether there exists a statistically significant difference in attitudes among consumers with varying levels of education. By exploring this relationship, the article aims to shed light on the potential role of education in shaping consumers’ environmentally friendly behaviours. By addressing this research gap and examining the specific case of Croatia, the article aims to contribute to the broader understanding of how education influences environmental consciousness and action, ultimately contributing to global efforts for a more sustainable future.

This article aims to present the attitude of young consumers to issues related to the ecological approach to life at the time of the popularisation of smart devices and homes. The article was written based on secondary and primary sources of information. Direct research was conducted using the online survey technique in 2021 on a sample of 588 consumers aged 18–34 years living in Poland. The declarations of the respondents show that they have a positive attitude towards the use of smart homes and devices that facilitate the implementation of an ecological lifestyle. Positive answers refer to the use of smart homes and devices that improve the comfort and conditions of life, leading to savings in electricity, water and gas, and also offer the possibility for a healthier lifestyle and control over one’s health and well-being.

Purpose: The article aims to examine the impact of women’s decision-making power in families on their gender stereotypes about business executives in the promising but insufficiently explored regions of Central Europe (CE) and Central Asia (CA).

Year after year, smart home systems continue to increase in popularity among consumer households. Consumption of smart home systems is also predicted to increase steeply in the coming years. Therefore, the article aims at assessing the attitude of young consumers towards a smart home and its devices. The article is based on primary and secondary sources of information. While primary information indicated the attitude of young consumers towards smart homes in their capacity as potential buyers, secondary information allowed for the definition of the issues discussed pertaining to smart homes and their devices. Using direct research, the online survey technique was employed on a sample of 588 consumers aged 18-34 years living in Poland in 2021. The respondents’ declarations showed that they intend using smart home services in the future, and that they thought using smart home devices would be enjoyable. In addition, respondents agreed with the statements that smart home devices are easy to use and valuable in everyday life, and that using smart home devices helps complete household chores faster. In their opinion, using a smart device at home can increase security and safety by detecting gas and smoke emissions and by creating an alert in the event of unauthorised home intrusion.

In both the global and the domestic approach, the real estate market is a multifaceted domain of study, constituting a specific and imperfect system. Researchers have to rely on increasingly advanced analytical tools to capture the structural complexity of real estate markets. Real estate prices are influenced by contradictory behaviors of market participants. This observation prompted the authors to analyze the income and price elasticity of demand for housing by calculating elasticity coefficients in view of changes in housing prices and the Veblen effect. This problem was analyzed based on a review of the literature and the results of an experiment. The results of the current study can be used to confirm the presence of the Veblen effect on the housing market based on the adopted criteria. The coefficients of price and income elasticity of demand for housing were calculated in view of the price dynamics on the real estate market to paint a more complete picture of reality and explain market processes.

Reducing the quantities of food lost or wasted will be an emerging challenge in coming years. The sector contributing the most to food waste is households. The aim of this study is to evaluate consumer behavior on the food market in the context of wastage identification and assessment of consumer opinions in Poland regarding the causes of the problem of food waste in households. A quantitative study was carried out using individual direct questionnaire interviews (N = 1,145). Results showed that Polish consumer opinions regarding reasons for wasting food vary according to demographic and economic conditions. The least educated consumers and families with several children were found to be guided by economic premises in their purchases more often than other groups and plan their purchases more rationally. The causes of food wastage related to irrational behavior were more often named by consumers with higher standards of living and by the younger generation.

Despite the dynamic development of technology related to the production of artificial meat, this product faces one more important challenge in terms of gaining consumer acceptance. In the literature on the subject, limited research has been done on the perception of meat in vitro across different societies; therefore, there is little knowledge of the possibility of its acceptance and the type of barriers it may encounter. The aim of this study was to assess the perception of meat produced from stem cells in vitro by Polish consumers. The study was voluntary and was conducted based on an internet survey addressed to people aged 12 to 60+. Convenience sampling of respondents was used. The research sample consisted of 424 respondents with a diversified sociodemographic profile. The results showed a diversified interest in meat produced from stem cells in vitro among Polish consumers. Many respondents were not able to clearly define their preferences for this type of product. Young people showed the greatest positive interest in innovative in vitro meat. The greatest concerns of consumers were related to the lack of knowledge about this type of food, the lack of its inherent naturalness and potential negative health effects.

The rapid development of retail and e-commerce is forcing marketing and logistics to be competitive and adapt to the demands of end-customers. At the same time, accurately determining the demand for goods allows to better understand customers and plan deliveries. The purpose of this article is to study the change in patterns of probability of choosing the option to purchase goods among end-consumers with and without the presence of e-commerce. The study consisted of research buyers, determining the probability of purchasing goods from “consumer basket” in the traditional way and over the Internet, which is considered for the example of one of the Kharkiv districts. The results develop e-commerce potential in Ukraine and are intended to determine the motives of consumers when choosing a shopping option.

This paper employs regression discontinuity design to estimate the impact of heating modes on residents’ energy consumption, energy efficiency gap, and energy usage behavior, using the Chinese Residential Energy Consumption Survey (CRECS). We find that district heating increases total energy consumption and total heating expenditure. However, energy consumption and expenditure per unit of district heating are lower than self-heating, which means a positive energy efficiency gap between district heating and self-heating. With the estimates, we construct a model of household heating expenditure. The counterfactual simulation shows that district heating expenditure would be reduced by more than 35% if the heating fee is charged based on actual usage. We suggest government provide a quantity-based district heating service by implementing a two-part tariff pricing strategy.

The popularity of smart devices that collect and share data on user behaviour grows every year, and the number of such devices in households is forecast to rise steadily. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to present the attitudes of young consumers regarding the security of their data collected by smart devices, interconnected via the existing Internet infrastructure or other network technologies within the Internet of Things (IoT) systems. The paper was written based on both secondary and primary sources of information. Secondary sources were used to define the discussed issues related to the Internet of Things and the security of data collected by smart devices. Primary sources, on the other hand, offered direct evidence of the attitudes of young consumers on the security of such data. Direct research was carried out using an online survey carried out in 2021 on a sample of 588 consumers aged 18–34 living in Poland. The results show that more than half of the respondents pay great attention to where the data collected by the devices used in their households is kept and whether such data is safe. In spite of such declarations, more than half of those surveyed have no knowledge about the level of the security of such data. The respondents agreed with the statement that consumers accepted the uncertainty related to the loss of control over their personal data collected by smart devices more quickly than the risk involved in becoming disconnected from them.

Women are more likely than men to report physical and emotional exhaustion related to paid work. While this gender gap in job burnout is common in the literature, the mechanism is yet to be thoroughly understood. Our study offers a novel, and admittedly provocative, explanation for the difference in burnout between men and women. We leverage a US survey rich in job and personal information to test whether theoretically relevant factors explain the gender gap in job burnout. Our results suggest that they may not. Instead we find that workers' perspectives regarding women's role in society drive a large gender gap in job burnout. Specifically, "traditional" women are significantly more likely than men to report job burnout. Thus, providing support and resources to transform perceptions and attitudes regarding gender roles may help to reduce job-related burnout resulting from a mismatch between expectations and paid work experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research background: The European Housing Charter defines housing as a basic necessity, but also a fundamental social right underpinning the European social model as well as an element of human dignity. Housing conditions constitute a major element of the broader quality of life for individuals and society.

The article presents the results of three studies conducted by the author concerning the preferences of retail outlet customers with regard to the days of the week on which they most frequently purchase general food and non-food merchandise. This issue has become relevant within the context of the enactment of the Act of 10 January 2018 on limiting trade on Sundays, holidays and certain other days. Previous customer shopping styles as regards weekly shopping schedules must have changed. The aim of the article is to identify consumers’ habits and their changes concerning the weekly shopping schedules before and after the Act implementation. The results are based on direct surveys conducted in 2014, 2016 and 2018 among customers in Podkarpackie Province. A descriptive analysis of the results is supported by the statistical test chi square usage. It may be concluded that both in relation to food and non-food merchandise, the implementation of the Act resulted in a decrease in the number of customers engaging in shopping on Sundays. In the case of food items, the shopping activity moved to Mondays and Tuesdays of the following week, the purpose being to resupply. No increase was identified in the number of customers purchasing food on Fridays or Saturdays preceding non-trading Sundays. The opposite was true for non-food merchandise, where non-trading Sundays resulted primarily in increased sales on Saturdays, with minor increases on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays as well. The differences in weekly shopping schedules observed between every edition of the study also proved to be more significant than those identified in the individual respondent classification groups used for the purpose of the article.

There is a big debate on the level of present-day female agency within the household in China. Even though the two sides of the debate make implicit assumptions on historical agency, a direct link is rarely established as we lack information on historical female agency among lower class households. In this paper we use a unique dataset on the ranking of women in the household for rural Yugan County (Jiangxi province, China) for the year 1947 when traditional households were still dominant.The main conclusion is that, contrary to much of the classic literature on the subject, ranking among females in traditional Chinese households was much less rigid than expected, with most women being in charge at a certain point in their lives. This was mostly driven by gender-specific issues such as a son's taking over as the head of the household, thereby raising his wife's status, but with potential other daughters-in-law (wives of the brothers of the head of the household) ending up as assistants Yet, other factors also play a role. For example, we find a positive impact of traditional education on female agency.

Sharing information concerning expenditure choices between a migrant and the recipient affects the migrant's allocation patterns. In a lab-in-the-field experiment, Filipino migrants are asked to earmark an in-kind budget to be delivered to their most closely connected household (MCCH). When the MCCH is fully aware of the migrant's decisions (i.e., symmetric information), we observe that the migrant raises the portion for consumption goods in the range of 10.0–10.5% with respect to the case when the migrant's choices are not disclosed (i.e., asymmetric information). Moreover, when sharing information, the migrant relies on more involvement of the recipient household and lowers by 7–9% the allocation to expenses she could monitor ex-post more strictly. The former result is consistent with the signaling motive, whereas the latter supports the presence of strategic behavior by the migrant remitter. Education allocations are significantly higher in intra- rather than inter-household transfers and this provides insights for conditional cash transfer policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze how staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic affects the rates of domestic violence in the U.S. Using police dispatch and crime data from 36 police and sheriff's departments and mobile device tracking data, we find that reported incidents of domestic violence increase as more people stay at home. Specifically, we estimate that staying at home due to COVID-19 increased domestic violence by over 5% on average from March 13 to May 24, 2020. This is consistent with a theory of exposure reduction, where victims and abusers stuck at home are more likely to fight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a dearth of studies on cooperation within the extended inter-generational family, a common living arrangement in Africa. This study employs a communication treatment and a 10-item Family Communication Scale (FCS) of the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales (FACES IV) to explain cooperation in a Voluntary Contribution Mechanism (VCM) beyond the laboratory. The study applies the Random Effect regression analysis. The results show that inter-generational cooperation is heterogeneous, limited and subject to decay, with stronger cooperation up the generational hierarchy. The framed field experiment presents evidence of the positive impact on cooperation of face-to-face communication and of positive perceptions of family communication. More specifically, communication mitigates contribution decay and enhances cooperation, especially between parents and grandparents and their children and grandchildren. Inter-generational transfers and the associated investment in family-type public goods can be augmented by social developmental policies such as parenting skills training that enhance family communication and in turn, intra-household cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural beliefs may affect demographic behaviors. According to traditional Chinese astrology, babies born on auspicious days will have good luck in their lifetime, whereas those born on inauspicious days will have bad luck. Using administrative data from birth certificates in Guangdong, China, we provide empirical evidence on the short-term effects of such numerological preferences. We find that approximately 3.9% extra births occur on auspicious days and 1.4% of births are avoided on inauspicious days. Additionally, there is a higher male/female sex ratio for births on auspicious days. Since such manipulation of the birthdate is typically performed through scheduled C-sections, C-section births increase significantly on auspicious days. Moreover, we use a second dataset to examine the long-term effect of numerological preferences and find that people born on auspicious days are more likely to attend college. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a view (on the basis of theoretical and empirical analysis) of corporate governance models used in Polish family businesses through financial performance. The empirical analysis covered a sample of 24,000 Polish family businesses in the period of 2008–2013. The use of linear regression has allowed the authors to verify the hypothesis concerning the occurrence of differences in profitability ratios in groups of family businesses using variant management models and allowed verifying the relationship between the degree of control and involvement of the owners in management and financial performance. The received results, though inconclusive, indicate that the involvement of the owner in the governance process can affect the financial aspect of a business. The prepared empirical analysis and conclusions of the article contribute to a better understanding of the measures taken on management and control decisions; what is more, they can provide guidance to the owners of family businesses in shaping the corporate governance model.

We explore the heterogeneity of pro-environmental behaviors embedded in social contexts from the perspectives of both social relationships and public media. Using new data from a Chinese nationally representative sample, we employ latent cluster models to identify patterns in social relationships and public media. Then we examine how differences across patterns of social relationships and public media correlate with differences in the likelihood that people take pro-environmental actions. Our results show that individuals with more exposure to green social contexts are more likely to take pro-environmental actions and, in particular, that public media plays a more important role than social relationships. The finding implies that developing countries can use public media to promote public participation in environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teenage parenthood is an often-discussed topic in family economics since it has been shown to affect many outcomes for the teen, child, and household. Using a nationally representative longitudinal panel of American teenagers and their parents, two questions related to the probability of teenage parenthood are examined. First, how do predictions of this occurrence made by the teenager’s parents vary across the population? Second, how does the accuracy of these predictions vary? The actual prevalence and variance of teenage parenthood are also examined, and the determinants of its occurrence are estimated. Among other results, expectations and their accuracy are found to differ substantially across socioeconomic status and some demographics such as race and religion. The average American parent underestimates the probability their child will become a teen parent by only a small amount, but within certain demographic groups this outcome is considerably underestimated, and in others it is overestimated. These differences help explain the variability in teen parenthood effects, and more broadly, the analysis serves as a test of parents’ ability to judge their childrens’ future outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]