The Science on Same-Sex Marriage

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two
cases challenging legal restrictions on same-sex marriage.
Proponents and opponents sought to cudgel one another with
sociological and psychological studies aiming to prove that science
is on their side. Well, what does the science say?

Impact on Traditional Marriage

Some opponents told the court that same-sex marriage will
undermine conventional marriage among heterosexuals. So what do the
data say about how legalizing gay marriages affects conventional
marriages?

A 2009 study by University of Sherbrooke economist Mircea
Trandafir investigated the effect
of the legalization of same-sex marriage in the Netherlands,
the first country to recognize same-sex marriage. In 1998, the
Dutch created registered partnerships, which are open to all
couples, and in 2001 a law allowing full same-sex marriages. His
analysis found that same-sex marriage leads to a decline in the
different-sex marriage rate, but not in the different-sex union
(marriage plus registered partnership) rate. In other words, Dutch
heterosexual couples are taking advantage of the “marriage lite”
registered partnership alternative.

At the time of Prof. Trandafir’s study, the chief difference
between registered partnerships and marriage was that the former
could be dissolved at the civil registry by mutual agreement. In a
2012 West Virginia Law Review article, Mercer School of
Law professor Scott Titshaw shows that the political compromises
provoked by the initial
refusals to extend full marriage rights to same-sex couples
result in a proliferation of civil union alternatives. Prof.
Titshaw agrees with Prof. Trandafir that different-sex couples
increasingly find the new marriage alternatives attractive; in
effect, refusing to give full legal recognition to same-sex couples
ends up diminishing the status and benefits associated with
conventional marriage for everyone. Ironically, conservatives by
opposing the extension of full marriage rights to gay people have
ended up weakening the institution they sought to protect.

The Divorce Rate

Sweden legalized same-sex civil unions in 1995 and gay marriage
in 2009. A 2011 demographic study from researchers at the
University of Stockholm reports that since 1999, after decades of
falling, both the marriage rate and the
fertility rate have trended upward and the divorce rate is
down.

Massachusetts was the first state to legalize same-sex marriage
in 2004. In 2003, the divorce rate in Massachusetts was 2.5 per
1,000 residents, and it fell to 1.9 by 2009. The Massachusetts
marriage rate jumped 15 percent in 2004, as many same-sex couples
chose to get married, but since has remained stable. Interestingly,
the states that permit same-sex marriage tend to have lower divorce
rates than those that ban same-sex marriage.

A 2004 study of registered partnerships in Sweden reported that

gay male couples were 50 percent more likely to divorce than
were heterosexual couples. Lesbian couples were nearly three times
more likely to divorce than were heterosexual couples.

 But how salient are higher divorce rates among gays and
lesbians for making public policy? Consider that a 2008 study in
the journal Family Relations by Rice University
sociologist Jenifer Bratter found that in the U.S.
black-husband/white-wife marriages were
twice as likely to end in divorce as white/white couples, and
Asian-husband/white-wife couples were 59percent more likely. Yet
few would argue that interracial marriages should be prohibited
because their children are at substantially greater risk of
experiencing the social, psychological, and economic disadvantages
stemming from a higher interracial divorce rate.

Having Kids

Nearly 20 percent of
same-sex households—i.e., 115,000—reported having children, and
84 percent contained children biologically related to one of the
householders. In comparison, 94 percent of different-sex married
couple households with children reported living with their own
children. A study issued in February by the Williams Institute, a
gay public-policy think tank at the law school of the University of
California, Los Angeles, reports that 37 percent of “lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender” (LGBT) adults have had a child at some
time in their lives. In addition, the report notes that as many as

six million American children and adults have an LGBT
parent.

 Opponents and proponents of same-sex marriage spar
fiercely over the data about how children fare in same-sex
households. On March 21, when the American Academy of Pediatricians
issued a
statement in favor of same-sex civil marriage, the group also
published a technical report that comprehensively looked at the
available research on the well-being of children living in same-sex
households. The report noted that a big problem with current
research is the small sample sizes of many of the studies. An
additional problem is that most of the children in these studies
have been through divorce before living in a same-sex household.
Divorce is well known to have deleterious effects on the well-being
of children.

However, data are reassuring from the National Longitudinal
Lesbian Family Study, which includes 78 lesbian families who used
donor sperm to have children and have been followed since the
1980s. A 2012 study compared quality-of-life measurements of

adolescents from lesbian families with those from a matched set
of adolescents raised in different-sex homes. The researchers
reported that “adolescents reared by lesbian mothers from birth do
not manifest more adjustment difficulties (e.g., depression,
anxiety, and disruptive behaviors) than those reared by
heterosexual parents.”

 By the time that their children were age 17, some 55
percent of the lesbian couples had separated compared to 36 percent
of heterosexual couples in the National Survey of Family Growth.
However, children from separated lesbian couples don’t appear to
manifest the social and psychological problems often found among
children whose heterosexual parents are divorced. The better scores
achieved by the children of lesbians, the researchers point out
might result from the fact that 75 percent of the separated lesbian
couples shared custody, whereas 65 percent of divorced heterosexual
mothers had sole custody of their children.

 A 2010 study in the periodical Demography by
Stanford University sociologist Michael Rosenfeld parsed Census
data to compare the school progress of children
reared in same-sex, heterosexual, and single parent families.
He reported that “children raised by same-sex couples have no
fundamental deficits in making normal progress through school.”

Adoption Outcomes

A 2012 study by UCLA researchers involving 82 families (60
heterosexual, 15 gay, and 7 lesbian) who
adopted high-risk children from foster care found that on
average, children in both same-sex and different-sex households
“showed significant gains of approximately 10 IQ points in their
cognitive development and maintained stable levels of behavior
problems that were not clinically significant.”

The researchers noted that these findings were especially
remarkable because the children adopted by same-sex couples were
generally higher risk and often of a different ethnicity than those
adopted by heterosexual couples. The bottom line is that research
on the effects of being reared by same-sex parents on children is
certainly not perfect, but the AAP seems right when it concluded
that despite research “imperfections, it is likely that the
extensive research efforts that have been carried out would have
documented serious and significant damages if they existed.”

Monogamy

Research suggests one salient difference between same-sex,
especially gay male couples, and different-sex couples relates to
the acceptability of sex with people outside of the relationship. A
2010 study by University of Toronto sociologist Adam Isaiah Green
in the Canadian Journal of Sociology involving 30 same-sex married
couples around Toronto found that two-thirds of same-sex spouses
(40 percent female, 60 percent male) did
not believe marriage needed always to be monogamous. In fact,
nearly half of male same-sex spouses (47 percent) had an explicit
agreement that allowed for non-monogamy. In comparison, the
General Social
Survey reported in 2010 that
19 percent of men and 14 percent of women they had been
unfaithful at some point during their marriages.

My reading of the scientific literature as it currently stands
is that the legalization of same sex marriage does not have major
effects on marriage trends in the wider society. As ever greater
numbers of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans have
exited the closet, more straight Americans have come to know and
accept their homosexual family members, friends, and colleagues. It
is this personal data, not the dueling studies published in obscure
social science journals, that have now persuaded a majority of Americans
in recent polls to support same sex marriage.

A slightly different version of this article originally appeared
at the Wall Street Journal's Ideas Market.

Disclosure: My wife and I have supported Equality Virginia
for a number of years.

Read More

Rand Paul Vaults to GOP Top Tier in latest PPP Poll

A new PPP poll
finds Kentucky Senator Rand Paul coming in second among
Republican voters’ most favored candidates to run for president in
2016. Just over a month ago, Rand Paul came in at 6th place with
just 10 percent among likely Republican voters. Now Paul garners 17
percent of Republican voters, the second most likely candidate to
be mentioned. 

Among Republican voters, 75 percent have a favorable opinion of
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), 62 percent have a favorable view of Sen.
Marco Rubio (R-FL), and 60 percent are favorable toward Sen. Rand
Paul (R-KY).

Interestingly, Chris Christie was the only Republican asked
about who received higher marks from Democrats (42 percent) than
Republicans (39 percent). Christie’s favorability among Democrats
may be a harbinger of the 2016 race. When asked who Republican
voters would like see run for president, 21 percent named Marco
Rubio, but in a close second and third 17 percent named Rand Paul,
15 percent named New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Other
Republican candidates making the list include Paul Ryan (12
percent), Jeb Bush (12 percent), Rick Santorum (5 percent), Bobby
Jindal (4 percent), Rick Perry (2 percent), and Susana Martinez (1
percent).

Among Democratic voters, former Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton tops the list of most favorable at 84 percent, followed by
Vice President Joe Biden (73 percent), and Senator Elizabeth Warren
a distant third at 43 percent.

In hypothetical match-ups among likely primary voters, Hillary
Clinton beats each potential Republican candidate. Hillary beats
Chris Christie by 4 points, Rand Paul by 6 points, and Marco Rubio
and Paul Ryan by 7 points. However, Chris Christie beats Joe Biden
by 9 points 49 to 40 percent. Nevertheless, Joe Biden beats the
remaining potential Republican contenders: by 2 points over Marco
Rubio, 3 points over Paul Ryan, and 4 points over Rand Paul.

PPP surveyed
1247 voters included oversamples of Democratic and Republican
primary voters from March 27-30 2013. The margin of error is +/-
2.8% overall, +/-3.8% for Democrats and +/-2.9% for
Republicans.

Read More

On the Environment, the Alarmists Are Still Losing

All that money. All that effort. All the sermonizing and
bloodcurdling imagery and still, Americans don't seem to be
evolving quickly enough on the environment.

A new poll by Pew Research Center, for instance, finds that a
wide majority of Americans support building the Keystone XL
pipeline, which would transport Canadian oil to refineries in
Texas. Sixty-six percent of Americans favor finishing the pipeline,
with only 23 percent in opposition. Strong support cuts through
every political distinction—other than "liberal" Democrats.

The Obama administration, which likes to count every organism
that's even tangentially connected to a clean-energy project as a
"green job," has dismissed the job-producing prospects of the
long-delayed pipeline as overblown. Perhaps. But cheap and abundant
energy certainly helps save and/or create more jobs
than any stimulus that was dreamed up in Washington.

Nearly half of Americans also support the increase use of
fracking—a major innovation in productivity that helps protect the
environment. This is a remarkable percentage when you consider the
widespread scaremongering we've witnessed on the issue.

Global warming? According to Pew, 69 percent of Americans say
there is solid evidence that the earth's average temperature has
been getting warmer over the past few decades. But you'll notice
something more interesting when you break the numbers down.

Among those who see the irrefutable scientific evidence of
global temperatures rising, only 42 percent believe that most of it
should be attributed to human activity. In fact, when you break it
down, 23 percent of Americans believe that natural patterns in the
earth's environment are heating the earth, and another 27 percent
don't believe there is any solid evidence of warming at all. The
more appropriate question would be: Do you believe in man-made
global warming? The answer: Less than half of Americans would say
yes. That, even after the unrelenting cultural, educational and
political bombardment we've all had to endure on the topic.

And though 33 percent of Americans believe that global warming
is a "very serious" problem, that number has declined by 6 points
since October 2012.

The crusade to convince us that global warming can only be dealt
with by wealth destruction and higher energy prices began with an
effort to "raise awareness," which turned into some delicate
nanny-state prodding before efforts to artificially inflate prices.
You might remember that cap-and-trade legislation was a top
priority for the president. The administration employed a number of
extremists—from science czar Dr. John Holdren, who once advocated
for mass sterilizations, to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who once
advocated raising gas prices to match those in Europe—to press the
case.

What's next? Shame. Those who don't buy the apocalyptic plotline
are, at worst, deniers—with all the immorality that signifies—or,
at best, quacks. Take a recent survey from lefty pollsters at
Public Policy Polling of 20 "widespread and/or infamous conspiracy
theories." It found that 6 percent of voters believe Osama bin
Laden is still alive, 7 percent of voters think the moon landing
was faked, 5 percent of voters believe that Paul McCartney actually
died in 1966, and so on.

The survey also found that 37 percent of voters believe global
warming is a hoax and 51 percent do not, as if ridiculous
conspiracies, easily disprovable, were the same as a theory that
has been overhyped and manipulated for political ends. Americans
may be "evolving" on so many fronts, but the issue of energy is
less open to emotional appeals and pandering. Progressives, then,
still have their work cut out for them.

Read More

Huge News: 52 Percent of Americans Now Support Legalizing Marijuana

"For the first time
in more than four decades of polling on the issue,"
reports the Pew Research Center, "a majority of Americans favor
legalizing the use of marijuana. A national survey finds that 52%
say that the use of marijuana should be made legal while 45% say it
should not." 

Here's the demographic breakdown: 

The survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted March 13-17
among 1,501 adults, finds that young people are the most supportive
of marijuana legalization. Fully 65% of Millennials –born since
1980 and now between 18 and 32 – favor legalizing the use of
marijuana, up from just 36% in 2008. Yet there also has been a
striking change in long-term attitudes among older generations,
particularly Baby Boomers.

Half (50%) of Boomers now favor legalizing marijuana, among the
highest percentages ever. In 1978, 47% of Boomers favored
legalizing marijuana, but support plummeted during the 1980s,
reaching a low of 17% in 1990. Since 1994, however, the percentage
of Boomers favoring marijuana legalization has doubled, from 24% to
50%.

Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980, came of age in the
1990s when there was widespread opposition to legalizing marijuana.
Support for marijuana legalization among Gen X also has risen
dramatically – from just 28% in 1994 to 42% a decade later and 54%
currently.

The Silent Generation continues to be less supportive of
marijuana legalization than younger age cohorts. But the percentage
of Silents who favor legalization has nearly doubled –from 17% to
32% – since 2002.

H/t Tom Angell

Read More

Covered at Reason 24/7: Sequestration Fearmongering Failing

The “Administration That Cried Wolf” is
now reaping the consequences. As the sequestration drags on, more
and more Americans are wondering what the big deal was about the
cuts.

Via
Greg Sargent at The Washington Post:

A
new McClatchy-Marist poll finds that the percentage of
Americans who don’t believe the sequester cuts are hurting the
economy has actually jumped 13 points over the last month,
while the percentage who think they are damaging the economy is
going down:

When it comes to the impact of the automatic spending cuts on
the economy, 40 percent of adults nationally say they have had no
effect on the economy. 36 percent believe they have had a negative
impact while 14 percent say the sequester cuts have had a positive
one. 10 percent are unsure.

There has been an increase in the proportion of Americans who
think these across-the-board spending cuts have had little impact
on the nation’s economy.

That wasn’t what the president was hoping to hear.

Follow this story and more at Reason 24/7.

If you have a story that would be of interest to Reason's
readers please let us know by emailing the 24/7 crew at
24_7@reason.com, or tweet us stories at @reason247.

Read More

On the Environment, the Alarmists Are Still Losing

All that money. All that effort. All the sermonizing and
bloodcurdling imagery and still, Americans don't seem to be
evolving quickly enough on the environment.

A new poll by Pew Research Center, for instance, finds that a
wide majority of Americans support building the Keystone XL
pipeline, which would transport Canadian oil to refineries in
Texas. Sixty-six percent of Americans favor finishing the pipeline,
with only 23 percent in opposition. Strong support cuts through
every political distinction—other than "liberal" Democrats.

The Obama administration, which likes to count every organism
that's even tangentially connected to a clean-energy project as a
"green job," has dismissed the job-producing prospects of the
long-delayed pipeline as overblown. Perhaps. But cheap and abundant
energy certainly helps save and/or create more jobs
than any stimulus that was dreamed up in Washington.

Nearly half of Americans also support the increase use of
fracking—a major innovation in productivity that helps protect the
environment. This is a remarkable percentage when you consider the
widespread scaremongering we've witnessed on the issue.

Global warming? According to Pew, 69 percent of Americans say
there is solid evidence that the earth's average temperature has
been getting warmer over the past few decades. But you'll notice
something more interesting when you break the numbers down.

Among those who see the irrefutable scientific evidence of
global temperatures rising, only 42 percent believe that most of it
should be attributed to human activity. In fact, when you break it
down, 23 percent of Americans believe that natural patterns in the
earth's environment are heating the earth, and another 27 percent
don't believe there is any solid evidence of warming at all. The
more appropriate question would be: Do you believe in man-made
global warming? The answer: Less than half of Americans would say
yes. That, even after the unrelenting cultural, educational and
political bombardment we've all had to endure on the topic.

And though 33 percent of Americans believe that global warming
is a "very serious" problem, that number has declined by 6 points
since October 2012.

The crusade to convince us that global warming can only be dealt
with by wealth destruction and higher energy prices began with an
effort to "raise awareness," which turned into some delicate
nanny-state prodding before efforts to artificially inflate prices.
You might remember that cap-and-trade legislation was a top
priority for the president. The administration employed a number of
extremists—from science czar Dr. John Holdren, who once advocated
for mass sterilizations, to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who once
advocated raising gas prices to match those in Europe—to press the
case.

What's next? Shame. Those who don't buy the apocalyptic plotline
are, at worst, deniers—with all the immorality that signifies—or,
at best, quacks. Take a recent survey from lefty pollsters at
Public Policy Polling of 20 "widespread and/or infamous conspiracy
theories." It found that 6 percent of voters believe Osama bin
Laden is still alive, 7 percent of voters think the moon landing
was faked, 5 percent of voters believe that Paul McCartney actually
died in 1966, and so on.

The survey also found that 37 percent of voters believe global
warming is a hoax and 51 percent do not, as if ridiculous
conspiracies, easily disprovable, were the same as a theory that
has been overhyped and manipulated for political ends. Americans
may be "evolving" on so many fronts, but the issue of energy is
less open to emotional appeals and pandering. Progressives, then,
still have their work cut out for them.

Read More

The 16 Biggest Mass Layoff Announcements Of The Past Year

We're expecting the March jobs report Friday, and expectations are that nonfarm payroll employment will increase by 193,000.

The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 7.7 percent.

While the labor market has been trudging along slowly, mass layoffs in the past year have weighed on employment.

We drew on Bloomberg data to highlight the 16 biggest layoff announcements since April of last year.

16. First Solar: 2,000

Percent of Employees Cut:
28.57 percent

Number of Employees After Cuts:
7,000

First Solar announced that it would layoff almost a third of its workforce early last year and shut down its factory in Germany. This comes as the European market for green energy has deteriorated.

Source: Business Insider, Bloomberg

15: JC Penney: 2,200

Percent of Employees Cut:
1.90 percent

Number of Employees After Cuts:
116,000

JC Penney employees were told earlier this year that they have to get ready to "work harder with less" in 2013. "Service Leaders, administrative assistants, and office/cash room associates" were being cut, though some of these were being reabsorbed and offered sales positions. 

CEO Ron Johnson has been trying to transform the retailer. 19,000 employees have been laid off since he took over.

Source: Business Insider, Bloomberg

14. Colgate-Palmolive Co: 2,316

Percent of Employees Cut:
6.00 percent

Number of Employees After Cuts:
38,600

Colgate-Palmolive, which makes a variety of consumer products like shampoo and toothpaste, announced that it would be laying off 2,316 employees by 2016. The layoffs are expected to save the company more than $365 million annually. 

Source: The Motley Fool, Bloomberg

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.

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Americans Who Say Immigrants Benefit the Economy Are More Likely To Support Reform

According to the latest Reason-Rupe
poll, a majority of Americans (55 percent) support offering
legal residency and an eventual path to citizenship to unauthorized
immigrants currently living in the United States if they meet
certain requirements. This number is far higher if one says
immigrants help the economy: 73 percent favor residency and path to
citizenship. Americans who perceive immigration’s economic benefits
also support raising visa caps for high skilled and low skilled
future immigrants (52 percent). Overall, 40 percent of Americans
support raising visa caps for high skilled and low skilled future
immigrants.

In contrast 27 percent of Americans support deportation of
unauthorized immigrants. Among those who say immigrants hurt the
economy, a plurality (45 percent) support deportation, while 34
percent favor residency and a citizenship pathway. Americans
skeptical of immigration’s benefits are also 20 points less likely
to favor raising the visa cap for high-skilled and low-skilled
workers with only about 30 percent in support.

Overall, Americans are evenly divided over whether immigrants
grow (40 percent) or hurt (40 percent) the US economy; few (15
percent) believe it has no impact. A majority (52 percent) worries
immigrant take jobs away from native-born Americans, 42 percent do
not share this concern. These economic worries are highly
predictive of support for reform but may also be indicative of
individuals’ underlying feelings toward newcomers.

The Young and More Educated Perceive Immigration Benefits

Younger Americans and those
with more education are more likely to perceive benefits from
immigration.

A majority of college graduates (53 percent) and those with post
graduate degrees (68 percent) share optimism of immigration’s
economic benefits, but a little more than a quarter of those with
high school diplomas share this view. Those with postgraduate
degrees are 17 points more likely to favor a path to citizenship
than high school graduates.

Majorities of millennials believe immigrants grow the economy,
but only about 35 percent of those aged 35 and older agree. Less
surprisingly, millennials are more likely to favor residency and
path to citizenship than those over thirty (60 percent to 53
percent).

White Americans are more skeptical of the economic benefits of
immigration. Forty-six percent of Caucasians think immigrants hurt
the economy and 60 percent say immigration takes jobs away from
native-born Americans. Latinos disagree: 56 percent say immigration
helps the economy and 59 percent say immigrants do not take away
jobs. African-Americans are in the middle: a plurality (47 percent)
say immigrants bolster the economy but 52 percent say they also
take jobs away from native-born Americans.

There are also regional disparities over whether immigrants
strengthen the economy. Americans in the Northeast and West are far
less concerned about the effects of immigration than are
Midwesterners and Southerners. Pluralities in the Northeast (48
percent) and West (43 percent) say immigrants bolster the economy
and are evenly divided over whether immigrants take away jobs.
However 57 percent of Midwesterners and 60 percent of Southerners
say immigrants take away jobs. A plurality of those in the Midwest
(45 percent) worry immigrants harm the economy, while the South is
evenly divided. 

Read the full report here: Reason-Rupe Feb
2013 Full Immigration Findings

Nationwide telephone poll conducted February 21-25 2013
interviewed 1002 adults on both mobile (502) and landline (500)
phones, with a margin of error +/- 3.8%. Columns may not add up to
100% due to rounding. Full poll results found here. Full
methodology can be found here. A
full analysis of the poll’s immigration results can be
found here. 

Read More

Male African-American Unemployment Is Over 50 Percent Among Dropouts

More than half of male African-American high school dropouts are unemployed, according to a new online analysis of unemployment data by Remapping Debate, a left-of-center news site in New York.

“This is an emergency, this is a catastrophe [but Washington is] not rating it as a catastrophe,” said the site’s editor, Craig Gurian, told The Daily Caller.

The rate is “unbelievable, it is unbelievable,” said a Republican Senate staff member.

Read More...
More on Unemployment

Read More

Conflict Free Chocolate: 5 Tips For Buying This Easter

This Easter, ensure that you're not filling your basket with treats that are the product of modern-day slaves engaged in forced labor.

According to Stop the Traffick, 1.8 million children are subjected to hard labor and horrible working conditions on West African cocoa farms, which is where 70 percent of the world's chocolate comes from.

The organization calls out specific brands such as Toblerone and shows you ways to help stop trafficking.

Read More...

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CHART OF THE DAY: How App Makers Make Money (AAPL, GOOG)

App revenue comes largely from in-app purchases made in free games, according to a new report from Distimo. Right now 76 percent of revenue comes from in-app purchases made in paid and free apps. That's up from 53 percent a year ago. If you're an app-maker, it looks like the best plan for making money is to give away the app, then charge people once they start using it.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

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Game Developers Are Migrating To Mobile

Game developers are increasingly turning to smartphones and tablets for their next project. A survey of 2,500 developers from the organizers&of the recent&Game Developers Conference&found that 58 percent were planning their next project for mobile devices. Approximately 38 percent of those surveyed said their last project was on mobile. Over 50 percent of those surveyed said they were independent developers, indicating that their could be some bias towards mobile in the survey, since mobile games are cheaper to develop than budget-busting console games.& Mobile gaming isn't going to knock out more immersive and graphics-driven desktop and console gaming any time soon. Hand-held consoles, however, are directly threatened by the increasingly sophisticated crop of iOS and Android games and will see less and less developer interest. Mobile games have been the primary beneficiary of the app store era. No wonder, given they are the largest time bucket on both smartphones and tablets.&A BII analysis found that 70 percent of the top 200 grossing apps on the iOS App Store were games (the proportion was 75 percent on Google Play). Among developers working on mobile, 90 percent planned working on iOS, 75 percent on Android, and only 15 percent on Windows Phone. Click here to view a larger version of this chart.
Please follow BI Intelligence on Twitter.Join the conversation about this story »

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CASE SHILLER: Home Prices Rise 8.08% Beating Expectations

The S&P/Case-Shiller home price index for January was up 8.08 percent year-over-year. This beat expectations for a 7.85 percent rise. Click here to refresh > On a month-over-month basis, home prices were up 1.02 percent, beating expectations of a 0.8 percent rise. The December number was reading was revised up to 0.92 percent, from the initial reading of a 0.88 percent MoM rise. Both the 10 and 20-city composite indices had their highest increases since summer 2006. "This marks the highest increase since the housing bubble burst," according to David Blitzer Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. Economists have been cranking up their home price forecasts. Bank of America and Capital Economics now expect home prices to rise 8 percent in 2013. Bank of America's Michelle Meyer and Justin Borst say that a "positive feedback loop has begun". They argue that when people think home prices are rising, they think they will keep doing so and credit conditions will improve, and this increases demand for homes. Here is the trajectory of home prices since 1988: SEE ALSO:&MICHELLE MEYER: Here Are The 4 Hot Housing Topics You Need To Watch > Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »

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