Economics - Research Publications

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    How Retirement Affects Mental Health, Cognitive Skills and Mortality; An Overview of Recent Empirical Evidence
    van Ours, JC (SPRINGER, 2022-08)
    Abstract Retiring is an individual labor market transition that affects the personal life of the workers involved and sometimes the life of their partners. This paper presents an overview of recent studies on the effects of retirement on mental health, cognitive ability and mortality. The results are all over the place but on average it seems like at retirement mental health improves, cognitive skills deteriorate and mortality is not affected. However, there is substantial effect heterogeneity. The range of outcomes is partly related to heterogeneity in terms of personal characteristics, type of job, institutional arrangements, and whether retiring was voluntary or mandatory. The variation in empirical findings makes it hard to see the forest for the trees and advocate evidence-based retirement policies that take health effects into account. Nevertheless, introducing more individual flexibility in the timing of retirement is a worthwhile policy alternative since this seems to be unambiguously beneficial for the health of workers retiring.
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    Racial bias in newspaper ratings of professional football players
    Principe, F ; van Ours, JC (ELSEVIER, 2022-01)
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    Mental health effects of same-sex marriage legalization
    Chen, S ; van Ours, JC (WILEY, 2022-01)
    Same-sex marriage legalization (SSML) is a typical anti-discrimination policy to remove institutional discrimination against sexual minorities by providing them with marriage equality. We examine how this legalization in the Netherlands affected mental health. Conducting a difference-in-differences analysis with heterosexual individuals as a reference group, we find that SSML significantly improved mental health of sexual minorities and substantially reduced the sexual orientation gap of mental health. The beneficial effects were present for both married and non-married sexual minorities. This phenomenon suggests that part of the health gains were related to mechanisms beyond marriage itself.
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    The contribution of Johan Cruyff to success and stadium attendance at Feyenoord
    van Ours, JC (ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2022)
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    Common international trends in football stadium attendance
    van Ours, JC ; Baert, S (PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE, 2021-03-03)
    This paper examines long-term developments in stadium attendance in professional football in the Netherlands. As in many other European countries attendance had a U-shaped development with the lowest numbers in the mid-1980s. The developments in the Netherlands do not seem to have been affected by hooliganism but by socioeconomic factors. Furthermore, the association with stadium attendance in other European leagues in particular the English Premier League is very high. This suggests that stadium attendance is affected not only by national developments but also by common international trends in the interest in football matches.
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    Legalizing recreational cannabis use: a promising journey into the unknown
    van Ours, JC (Wiley, 2020-06-01)
    In order to evaluate the impact of the current legalization experiences, it is cru-cial to measure their efects both on public health and on users’ criminalization and contacts with illegal activities. The Uruguay-an cannabis regulation model is a middle-ground option between prohibition and commercialization, in which the govern-ment imposes strict regulations for users: mandatory registry, maximum amount of cannabis per user (40 g per month and 480 g per year), no advertisement, no selling to tourists, no edibles allowed. These restric-tions were planned to control consumption and accomplish the public health goal of the regulation.
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    Seasonal Home Advantage in English Professional Football; 1974–2018
    Peeters, T ; van Ours, JC (Springer, 2021-01-01)
    We study seasonal home advantage in English professional football over the period 1974 to 2018. We distinguish between absolute home advantage, enjoyed equally by all teams in a division, and relative home advantage, which differs among teams in the division. We find that absolute home advantage is substantial, ranging from 0.59 to 0.64 in terms of points per game or 0.44 to 0.46 in terms of goal difference. Likewise, clubs differ substantially in the relative home advantage they enjoy. Relative home advantage is positively related to within-team variation in attendance and the use of an artificial pitch. Despite big cross-divisional differences in attendance, absolute home advantage is about the same in all divisions. Finally, there is a substantial decline in absolute home advantage over time that materializes equally across divisions.
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    The joy of lottery play: evidence from a field experiment
    Burger, MJ ; Hendriks, M ; Pleeging, E ; van Ours, JC (Springer (part of Springer Nature), 2020-12-01)
    Buying lottery tickets is not a rational investment from a financial point of view. Yet, the majority of people participate at least once a year in a lottery. We conducted a field experiment to increase understanding of lottery participation. Using representative data for the Netherlands, we find that lottery participation increased the happiness of participants before the draw. Winning a small prize had no effect on happiness. Our results indicate that people may not only care about the outcomes of the lottery, but also enjoy the game. Accordingly, we conclude that lottery participation has a utility value in itself and part of the utility of a lottery ticket is consumed before the draw.
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    Delinquency, Arrest and Early School Leaving*
    Ward, S ; Williams, J ; van Ours, JC (WILEY, 2021-04)
    Abstract Boys typically initiate delinquent behaviour during their teenage years, and many go on to be arrested. We show that engaging in delinquency and being arrested in youth are each associated with early school leaving. The effect of delinquency on school leaving is largely driven by crimes that produce a monetary return, and the increase in school leaving is greater when onset of these types of crime, and arrest, occur at younger ages. The sizeable impact of delinquency on school leaving highlights the need for crime prevention efforts to extend beyond youth who come into contact with the justice system.
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    Hazardous or Not? Early Cannabis Use, and the School to Work Transition of Young Men
    Williams, J ; van Ours, J (Wiley, 2020-10-01)
    We study the relationship between cannabis use and early labor market experiences of young men, focusing on the time it takes them to find their first job, and the wage rate they receive at that job. We find that early cannabis users accept job offers more quickly and at a lower wage rate compared with otherwise similar males who did not use cannabis. These differences are present only for those who use cannabis for longer than a year before starting their job search. We also find that early cannabis users are less likely to return to education and, as a consequence, will have a lower educational attainment. Overall, our findings provide new insights into the direct and indirect relationships between cannabis use and early labor market experiences.