Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Do Citizens Know Whether Their State Has Decriminalized Marijuana? Assessing The Perceptual Component Of Deterrence Theory, Robert Maccoun, Rosalie Pacula, Jamie Chriqui, Katherine Harris, Peter Reuter

Robert MacCoun

Deterrence theory proposes that legal compliance is influenced by the anticipated risk of legal sanctions. This implies that changes in law will produce corresponding changes in behavior, but the marijuana decriminalization literature finds only fragmentary support for this prediction. But few studies have directly assessed the accuracy of citizens’ perceptions of legal sanctions. The heterogeneity in state statutory penalties for marijuana possession across the United States provides an opportunity to examine this issue. Using national survey data, we find that the percentages who believe they could be jailed for marijuana possession are quite similar in both states that have removed …

Selection Bias In College Admissions Test Scores, Jesse Rothstein, Melissa Clark, Diane Schanzenbach

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

Data from college admissions tests can provide a valuable measure of student achievement, but the non-representativeness of test-takers is an important concern. We examine selectivity bias in both state-level and school-level SAT and ACT averages. The degree of selectivity may differ importantly across and within schools, and across and within states. To identify within-state selectivity, we use a control function approach that conditions on scores from a representative test. Estimates indicate strong selectivity of test-takers in "ACT states," where most college- bound students take the ACT, and much less selectivity in SAT states. To identify within- and between-school selectivity, we …

What Code-Mixed Dps Can Tell Us About Gender, Elena Valenzuela, Joyce Bruhn De Garavito, Ewelina Barski, Maria De Luna Villalón, Ana Faure, Yolanda Pangtay, Alma Ramírez Trujillo, Sonia Reis

Ewelina Barski, PhD

There has been a growing interest in the examination of the steady state of simultaneous bilinguals. An understanding of what leads to the possible weaknesses in the grammar of early bilinguals can contribute to our understanding of the possible causes of the apparent characteristic ‘failures’ in second language acquisition (Montrul 2008). Spanish has a gender feature for nouns (Carroll 1989) and gender agreement for determiners and adjectives. Problems with the acquisition of gender marking on the noun and/or with gender agreement are well-known in the L2 literature (Hawkins 1998; Fernández–Garcia 1999; Franceschina 2001; Bruhn de Garavito and White 2002; White …

What Code-Mixed Dps Can Tell Us About Gender, Elena Valenzuela, Joyce Bruhn De Garavito, Ewelina Barski, Maria De Luna Villalón, Ana Faure, Yolanda Pangtay, Alma Ramírez Trujillo, Sonia Reis

Joyce Bruhn de Garavito

There has been a growing interest in the examination of the steady state of simultaneous bilinguals. An understanding of what leads to the possible weaknesses in the grammar of early bilinguals can contribute to our understanding of the possible causes of the apparent characteristic ‘failures’ in second language acquisition (Montrul 2008). Spanish has a gender feature for nouns (Carroll 1989) and gender agreement for determiners and adjectives. Problems with the acquisition of gender marking on the noun and/or with gender agreement are well-known in the L2 literature (Hawkins 1998; Fernández–Garcia 1999; Franceschina 2001; Bruhn de Garavito and White 2002; White …

Prediction Markets To Forecast Electricity Demand, Peter Cramton, Luciano De Castro

Luciano I. de Castro

Forecasting electricity demand for future years is an essential step in resource planning. A common approach is for the system operator to predict future demand from the estimates of individual distribution companies. However, the predictions thus obtained may be of poor quality, since the reporting incentives are unclear. We propose a prediction market as a form of forecasting future demand for electricity. We describe how to implement a simple prediction market for continuous variables, using only contracts based on binary variables. We also discuss specific issues concerning the implementation of such a market.

The Impact Of Targeting Technology On Advertising Markets And Media Competition, Susan Athey, Joshua S. Gans

Joshua S Gans

This paper examines the impact of geographic targeting technology on local advertising markets when local and general media outlets compete for readers. In a base case, it is demonstrated that when the general outlet adopts such technologies, this does not impact on advertising prices or profits as that outlet expands ad space to meet demand. When wasted impressions are costly or there are advertiser capacity constraints that create competition between outlets for advertisers, this conclusion changes and there is a positive return to targeting. This adoption is likely to adversely impact on local outlet profits.

Central Bank Nigeria Annual Report And Statement Of Accounts For The Year Ended 31st December, 2009, Central Bank Of Nigeria

CBN Annual Report

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Annual Report and Statement of Accounts for the Year Ended 31st December, 2009 revealed that the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 6.7% YoY, compared to 6.0% in the previous year. This growth was driven by the non-oil sector, with the non-oil GDP growth rate of 8.3%. Within the non-oil sector, the agricultural sub-sector grew by 6.2%, while the whole-sector and retail sectors recorded growth rates of 11.5 and 10.5 per cent, respectively. The robust output recorded during the previous three years was driven by the government's optimism, which reflected in the oil …

Labor Productivity In The Informal Sector: Necessity Vs. Opportunity Firms, Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

Differences between opportunity and necessity firms within the informal sector have long been debated. This paper revisits this debate using a new dataset of informal firms in three African countries. Focusing on average productivity of labor, a measure of firm efficiency, we find that it is much higher for opportunity compared with necessity firms. However, this difference between necessity and opportunity firms holds only within the sample of manufacturing firms. For firms in the service sector, there is no such difference.

[Data and Stata do files included]

Structure And Behavior: Experiments In Social Sciences, Shyam Sunder

Shyam Sunder

No abstract provided.

Default Penalty As A Disciplinary And Selection Mechanism In Presence Of Multiple Equilibria., Shyam Sunder

Shyam Sunder

No abstract provided.

Structure And Behavior: Experiments In Social Sciences, Shyam Sunder

Shyam Sunder

No abstract provided.

Default Penalty As A Disciplinary And Selection Mechanism In Presence Of Multiple Equilibria, Shyam Sunder

Shyam Sunder

No abstract provided.

Stem Cell Matching For Patients Of Mixed Race, Ted C. Bergstrom

Ted C Bergstrom

Patients with leukemia and other blood diseases stand a good chance of recovery and a return to normal life if they receive a stem cell transplant from a living donor. In the absence of a transplant, their survival prospects are grim. For a transplant to be successful, the human leukocyte antigens (HLA) of the donor and recipient must be a close genetic match. To facilitate non-sibling matches, the developed nations of the world have set up national volunteer registries. The larges such registry is the NMDP (National Marrow Donor Program). We estimate the distribution of HLA types for individuals of …

Freakonomics: Steven Levitt, Alfredo Bateman

Alfredo Bateman

No abstract provided.

Felicidad Nacional Bruta (Fnb), Guillermo Arosemena

Guillermo Arosemena

No abstract provided.

Estimating The Impact Of The Death Penalty On Murder, John Donohue, Justin Wolfers

John Donohue

No abstract provided.

Towards Extending The Equilibrium Of Discrimination In The Internet To Its Fringes, Matthias Bärwolff

Matthias Bärwolff

The core insight to the history of the dynamics of limitations, restrictions, and discriminations on the Internet is that they are largely a corollary to the futility of obtaining an entirely 'neutral' design of the Internet that is both robust and scalable. The question then is how to arrange the necessary volume of discriminations so as to obtain a design as value free as possible, for only such a design can be in line with the premise of stipulating no values other than (1) good order at large, and (2) the appreciation of the pursuit of local purposes by individuals. …

Volatility Risk, Zhiguang Wang

Economics Commentator

No abstract provided.

Town Of Ludlow Master Plan. Part Ii: Envisioning 2030, Rachael Cain, Euripedes De Oliveria, Paul W. Gagnon, Peter Gillo, Meredith Hill, Mark Kresge, Alyssa Larose, Walter Ramsey, Joshua Rickman, Sonya C. Smith, Ryan Wallace, Rebecca Williams

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

The Master Plan Committee for the town of Ludlow contracted with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC) to prepare a new Master Plan. PVPC engaged the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning (LARP) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to assist with a portion of the Master Plan work. This work included: executing analysis and assessment of existing community conditions, conducting a weekend visioning workshop, and developing land use scenarios for the purpose of providing concrete visualization of possible futures for the Town of Ludlow in 2030.

Town Of Ludlow Master Plan. Part I: Envisioning 2030, Rachael Cain, Euripedes De Oliveria, Paul W. Gagnon, Peter Gillo, Meredith Hill, Mark Kresge, Alyssa Larose, Walter Ramsey, Joshua Rickman, Sonya C. Smith, Ryan Wallace, Rebecca Williams, Barbara Constable, Helena Farrell, Brian C. Giggey, Chris Jennett, Zhujun Kong, Megan Plante, Ben Eli Webb, Deborah A. Zervas

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

The Master Plan Committee for the town of Ludlow contracted with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC) to prepare a new Master Plan. PVPC engaged the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning (LARP) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to assist with a portion of the Master Plan work. This work included: executing analysis and assessment of existing community conditions, conducting a weekend visioning workshop, and developing land use scenarios for the purpose of providing concrete visualization of possible futures for the Town of Ludlow in 2030.

Entre Chile Y Venezuela, Guillermo Arosemena

Guillermo Arosemena

No abstract provided.

Who Is Responsible For The C-N-T Equation, Shyam Sunder

Shyam Sunder

No abstract provided.

Legal Regimes And Political Particularism: An Assessment Of The "Legal Families" Theory From The Perspectives Of Comparative Law And Political Economy, John W. Cioffi, D. Gordon Smith

BYU Law Review

The “legal families” theory of corporate law and ownership structures pioneered by Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-deSilanes, Andrei Shleifer, and Robert Vishny provides one of the most influential accounts of why “law matters” in shaping economic organization and outcomes. However, the empirical bases and theoretical logic of the theory contain serious flaws and limitations. First, as has been pointed out by a number of critics engaged in this revision, the legal origins literature contains numerous problematic characterizations of substantive law that expose the serious problems of quantitative operationalization of legal rules as a mode of comparative legal analysis. Second, the …

How Demanding Should Equality Of Opportunity Be, And How Much Have We Achieved?, Valentino Dardanoni, Gary S. Fields, John E. Roemer, Maria Laura Sánchez Puerta

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] This chapter proposes tests of various notions of equality of opportunity and applies them to intergenerational income data for the United States and Britain. Agreement is widespread that equality of opportunity holds in a society if the chances that individuals have to succeed depend only on their own efforts and not on extraneous circumstances that may inhibit or expand those chances. What is contentious, however, is what constitutes "effort" and "circumstances." Most people, we think, would say that the social connections of an individual's parents would be included among circumstances: equality of opportunity is incomplete if some individuals get …

Project Animate: Promoting Student Civic Participation Through Latino Voter Mobilization - Ollas Report No. 6, Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado

Latino/Latin American Studies Reports

This project sought to expand voter outreach and mobilization of new registered and Latino voters through a series of activities in the greater Omaha metropolitan area. Following the successful development of a voter mobilization project undertaken in the 2006 election cycle, this project conducted door-to-door canvassing activities utilizing students to distribute nonpartisan voter information and engage in “get out the vote” activities with new Latino registered voters.

Working Paper No. 62, Uses Of Abduction In Economic Science, Daniel Urban

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry considers the meaning of abduction and its uses in Economic Science. Abductive logic is discussed at some length, in order to clarify how it is used in this inquiry. In addition, abduction is traced from its appearances in the writings of pragmatist philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce and how its meaning is later carried on in Thorstein Veblen’s Institutional Economics. Peirce’s influence proves foundational for Veblen’s contributions, as well as for the writings of John Roger Commons. My research suggests that after Commons, Peirce’s influence in economics wanes. Additionally, the use of retroduction in critical realism provides a contemporary …

Organizational Values, Social Responsibility, And Corporate Citizenship: The Case Of Nevada State College, Grace S. Thomson

Dr. Grace S. Thomson

Organizational Values, Social Responsibility, and Corporate Citizenship Organizations contribute more than products and services to the society. The generation of jobs, creation of wealth and satisfaction of needs are only a portion of the influence that organizations have in a community. Likewise, organizations are increasingly engaging in social responsible initiatives to respond to the concerns of their various stakeholders (Aguilera, Rupp, Williams, & Ganapathi, 2007). Organizations with a genuine interest for social responsibility and citizenship possess value systems that articulate and integrate these social motives into their corporate strategy (Graber & Kilpatrick, 2008). Higher education institutions in the United States …

Malos Augurios, Guillermo Arosemena

Guillermo Arosemena

No abstract provided.

Pension Policy: The Search For Better Solutions, John A. Turner

Upjohn Press

Turner identifies the current problems facing pension policy for U.S. employer-provided pension plans and recommends solutions to those problems based on his examination of pension systems in other industrialized nations.

Sportsbook Pricing And The Behavioral Biases Of Bettors In The Nhl, Rodney Paul, Andrew Weinbach

Rodney J. Paul

The betting market for the NHL is investigated using actual betting percentages on favorites and underdogs from real sportsbooks. Sportsbooks do not appear to attempt to price to balance the book as betting percentages are not proportional to set odds. As in the NFL and NBA, bettors are shown to have a strong preference for favorites and road favorites in particular. Simple strategies of betting against significant imbalances toward the favorite are shown to generate positive returns. Although not pricing to balance the book, sportsbooks do not appear to price to exploit known bettor biases in all cases. Clear bettor …