Digital Commons Network^™

Risk Classification And Health Insurance, Georges Dionne, Casey G. Rothschild

Economics Faculty Scholarship

Risk classification refers to the use of observable characteristics by insurers to group individuals with similar expected claims, compute the corresponding premiums, and thereby reduce asymmetric information. An efficient risk classification system generates premiums that fully reflect the expected cost associated with each class of risk characteristics. This is known as financial equity. In the health sector, risk classification is also subject to concerns about social equity and potential discrimination. We present different theoretical frameworks that illustrate the potential trade-off between efficient insurance provision and social equity. We also review empirical studies on risk classification and residual asymmetric information.

Research & Action Fall/Winter 2011, Wellesley Centers For Women, Amy Hoffman

Research & Action Report

In this issue:

Spotlight: New Funding & Projects

Commentary: Not a Safe Bet
Amy Hoffman, M.F.A.

Q&A with Rangita de Silva-de Alwis, S.J.D.

Focus on Research at the Jean Baker Miller Intensive Institute
Jean Baker Miller Training Institute (JBMTI)

Afterschool Matters Fall 2011, National Institute On Out-Of-School Time

Afterschool Matters

English Learners and Out-of-School Time Programs: The Potential of OST Programs to Foster EL Success
By Julie Maxwell-Jolly
OST programs can benefit the growing population of English learners in U.S. public schools by giving them the gift of time in which to learn both English and subject matter content. 12 pages.

Learning English and Beyond: A Holistic Approach to Supporting English Learners in Afterschool
By Jhumpa Bhattacharya and Jimena Quiroga
English learners are a diverse group with diverse experiences and needs. While schools focus on teaching them English, afterschool programs can build on their strengths to address their social and …

Is Being In School Better? The Impact Of School On Children’S Bmi When Starting Age Is Endogenous, Patricia M. Anderson, Kristin F. Butcher, Elizabeth U. Cascio, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

Faculty Research and Scholarship

In this paper, we investigate the impact of attending school on body weight and obesity using a regression-discontinuity design. As is the case with academic outcomes, school exposure is related to unobserved determinants of weight outcomes because some families choose to have their child start school late (or early). If one does not account for this endogeneity, it appears that an additional year of school exposure results in a greater BMI and a higher probability of being overweight or obese. When we compare the weight outcomes of similar age children with one versus two years of school exposure due to …

Optimal Taxation With Rent-Seeking, Casey G. Rothschild, Florian Scheuer

Economics Faculty Scholarship

Recent policy proposals have suggested taxing top incomes at very high rates on the grounds that some or all of the highest wage earners are engaged in socially unpro- ductive or counterproductive activities, such as externality imposing speculation in the financial sector. To address this, we provide a model in which agents can choose between working in a traditional sector, where private and social products coincide, and a crowdable rent-seeking sector, where some or all of earned income reflects the capture of pre-existing output rather than increased production. We character- ize Pareto optimal linear and non-linear income tax systems under …

Course Catalog 2011-2012, Wellesley College

The Wellesley College Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Still Missing: Undocumented Immigrants In Health Care Reform, Charlene Galarneau

Faculty Research and Scholarship

The health care reform signed by President Obama in March 2010 mirrors the Clinton reform proposal of 1993 in that both excluded undocumented immigrants from federal insurance coverage. In both cases substantive discussion of their possible inclusion was stifled by political timidity. This paper begins with a brief descriptive overview of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. and their health care and insurance coverage. It highlights the most common moral, economic, and public health arguments made for and against the inclusion of undocumented immigrants in the 2010 health care reform. The paper then asserts that undocumented immigrants are part of the …

Research & Action Report, Spring/Summer 2011, Wellesley Centers For Women, Sari Pekkala Kerr, Peggy Mcintosh, Rangita De Silva-De Alwis

Research & Action Report

In this issue:

Q&A: Investigating the Economic Implications of Women's Realities
Families Labor Market

Commentary: Creating Equitable Schools with Teachers at the Forefront

Global Connections: WCW Organizes Roundtable for Women Leaders in the Arab and Muslim World
Rabat Roundtable: Women Leading Change in the Muslim World

Even One Year of Comprehensive Sex Education Has a Protective Effect

Schools Leverage Social and Emotional Learning in Turnaround Efforts

Fractional Weak Discrepancy And Split Semiorders, Alan Shuchat, Randy Shull, Ann N. Trenk

Faculty Research and Scholarship

The fractional weak discrepancy wd_F(P) of a poset P=(V,≺) was introduced in Shuchat et al. (2007) [6] as the minimum nonnegative k for which there exists a function f:V→R satisfying (i) if a≺b then f(a)+1≤f(b) and (ii) if a∥b then |f(a)−f(b)|≤k. In this paper we generalize results in Shuchat et al. (2006, 2009) [5] and [7] on the range of wd_F for semiorders to the larger class of split semiorders. In particular, we prove that for such posets the range is the set of rationals that can be represented as r/s for which 0≤s−1≤r<2s.

A New Identity For Old Europe: How And Why The French Imagined Françallemagne In Recent Years, Scott Gunther

Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Afterschool Matters Spring 2011, National Institute On Out-Of-School Time

Afterschool Matters

In this issue:

Networks Analysis of a Regional Ecosystem of Afterschool Programs
By Martha G. Russell and Marc A. Smith
Social network analysis of a local afterschool ecosystem reveals programs’ relative isolation from one another and their dependence on just a few funding sources. 11 pages.

Building an Afterschool Workforce: Regulations and Beyond
By Patricia Cole
If afterschool is to become a system at the program level and a profession at the staff level, we need to examine what qualifications are appropriate for the staff who make a difference in children’s lives. 10 pages.

The Effect of Afterschool Program Participation …

The Market Crash And Mass Layoffs: How The Current Economic Crisis May Affect Retirement, Courtney C. Coile, Phillip B. Levine

Economics Faculty Scholarship

Recent dramatic declines in U.S. stock and housing markets have led to widespread speculation that shrinking retirement accounts and falling home equity will lead workers to delay retirement. Yet the weakness in the labor market and its impact on retirement are often overlooked. If older job seekers have difficulty finding work, they may retire earlier than expected. The net effect of the current economic crisis on retirement is thus far from clear. In this paper, we use 30 years of data from the March Current Population Survey to estimate models relating retirement decisions to fluctuations in equity, housing, and labor …

The Total Weak Discrepancy Of A Partially Ordered Set, Alan Shuchat, Randy Shull, Ann N. Trenk

Faculty Research and Scholarship

We define the total weak discrepancy of a poset P as the minimum nonnegative integer k for which there exists a function f : V → Z satisfying (i) if a \prec b then f(a) + 1 ≤ f(b) and (ii) Σ|f(a) − f(b)| ≤ k, where the sum is taken over all unordered pairs {a, b} of incomparable elements. If we allow k and f to take real values, we call the minimum k the fractional total weak discrepancy of P. …

On The Predictability Of The U.S. Elections Through Search Volume Activity, Catherine Lui, P. Takis Metaxas, Eni Mustafaraj

Faculty Research and Scholarship

In recent years several researchers have reported that the volume of Google Trends and Twitter chat over time can be used to predict several kinds of social and consumer metrics. From the success of new movies before their release to the marketability of consumer goods to the prediction of voting results in the recent 2009 German elections, Google Trends and Twitter message volume have been treated as indispensable tools for not only recording current social trends, but even for predicting the future. This is surprising, given the significant differences in the demographics of voters and people who use social networks …

Bjorling Problem For Timelike Surfaces In The Lorentz-Minkowski Space, R. M.B. Chaves, M. P. Dussan, Martin A. Magid

Mathematics Faculty Scholarship

We solve the Bjorling problem for timelike surfaces in the Lorentz-Minkowski space through a split-complex representation formula obtained for this kind of surface. Our approach uses the split-complex numbers and natural split-holomorphic extensions. As applications, we show that the minimal timelike surfaces of revolution as well as minimal ruled timelike surfaces can be characterized as solutions of certain adequate Bjorling problems in the Lorentz-Minkowski space.

Influence Of Long-Distance Climate Teleconnection On Seasonality Of Water Temperature In The World's Largest Lake - Lake Baikal, Siberia - Lake Baikal, Siberia, Stephen L. Katz, Stephanie E. Hampton, Lyubov R. Izmest'eva, Marianne V. Moore

Biological Sciences Faculty Scholarship

Large-scale climate change is superimposed on interacting patterns of climate variability that fluctuate on numerous temporal and spatial scales—elements of which, such as seasonal timing, may have important impacts on local and regional ecosystem forcing. Lake Baikal in Siberia is not only the world's largest and most biologically diverse lake, but it has exceptionally strong seasonal structure in ecosystem dynamics that may be dramatically affected by fluctuations in seasonal timing. We applied time-frequency analysis to a near-continuous, 58-year record of water temperature from Lake Baikal to examine how seasonality in the lake has fluctuated over the past half century and …