We use the core interviews of the US Health Interview Survey for the years 1987-1994, to study the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) on mortality and self-reported health. We find, consistent with previous studies, that the relationship between mortality and indicators such as education and income diminishes with age. We consider new explanations for this result and conclude that general biological deterioration at old age is probably the principal one. One important piece of evidence for this conclusion is the finding that there is no relationship at all between mortality and SES for people whose self-reported health status at baseline is either fair or poor.

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We explore two methods of incorporating bottom-up abatement cost estimates into top-down modeling: economy-wide and sector-specific. Carbon emissions depend basically on technology and scale. Given the technology options, abatement is possible without a substantial reduction in scale. Otherwise the change must come purely through a reduction in demand. Our analysis shows that the cost of environmental policy is considerably overestimated by top-down models if a bottom-up abatement cost curve is not included. Using the data for the Swiss economy, we demonstrate two techniques of representing abatement function explicitly in a computable general equilibrium model: a traditional and a hybrid (discrete technology modeling) approaches. The results suggest that the current climate policy in Switzerland will not be able to move the economy towards the required 10% CO2 reduction. Both approaches provide virtually the same results when calibration process is precisely executed, which contradicts the results in previous studies.

This article presents a simulation of the impact of the carbon tax reform on the Estonian economy using a computable general equilibrium model. Nine different scenarios have been considered. The long-term results of the proposed tax reform should not hamper the country's economic development, provided that the appropriate tax option is used. The reform has to be implemented as a package of changes in the entire tax system.