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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Measures Of Assortativity, Ted Bergstrom Dec 2012

Measures Of Assortativity, Ted Bergstrom

Ted C Bergstrom

This paper discusses alternative measures of assortative matching and relates them to Sewall Wright's F-statistic. We also explore applications of measures of assortativity to evolutionary dynamics. We generalize Wright's statistic to allow the possibility that some types match more assortatively than others, and explore the possibility of identifying parameters of this more general model from the observed distribution of matches by the partners' types.


A Public Choice Framework For Controlling Transmissable And Evolving Diseases, Ted C. Bergstrom, Carl T. Bergstrom, Ben Althouse Dec 2008

A Public Choice Framework For Controlling Transmissable And Evolving Diseases, Ted C. Bergstrom, Carl T. Bergstrom, Ben Althouse

Ted C Bergstrom

Control measures used to limit the spread of infectious disease often generate externalities. Vaccination for transmissible diseases can re- duce the incidence of disease even among the unvaccinated, whereas antimicrobial chemotherapy can lead to the evolution of antimicro- bial resistance and thereby limit its own e#11;ectiveness over time. We integrate the economic theory of public choice with mathematical models of infectious disease to provide quantitative framework for making allocation decisions in the presence of these externalities. To illustrate, we present a series of examples: vaccination for tetanus, vaccination for measles, antibiotic treatment of otitis media, and antiviral treatment of pandemic …