Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Robust Mechanism Design: An Introduction, Dirk Bergemann, Stephen Morris

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This essay is the introduction for a collection of papers by the two of us on “Robust Mechanism Design” to be published by World Scientific Publishing. The appendix of this essay lists the chapters of the book. The objective of this introductory essay is to provide the reader with an overview of the research agenda pursued in the collected papers. The introduction selectively presents the main results of the papers, and attempts to illustrate many of them in terms of a common and canonical example, the single unit auction with interdependent values. In addition, we include an extended discussion about …

Risky Curves: From Unobservable Utility To Observable Opportunity Sets, Daniel Friedman, Shyam Sunder

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Most theories of risky choice postulate that a decision maker maximizes the expectation of a Bernoulli (or utility or similar) function. We tour 60 years of empirical search and conclude that no such functions have yet been found that are useful for out-of-sample prediction. Nor do we find practical applications of Bernoulli functions in major risk-based industries such as finance, insurance and gambling. We sketch an alternative approach to modeling risky choice that focuses on potentially observable opportunities rather than on unobservable Bernoulli functions.

The Effect Of Language On Economic Behavior: Evidence From Savings Rates, Health Behaviors, And Retirement Assets, Keith M. Chen

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Languages differ widely in the ways they encode time. I test the hypothesis that languages that grammatically associate the future and the present, foster future-oriented behavior. This prediction arises naturally when well-documented effects of language structure are merged with models of intertemporal choice. Empirically, I find that speakers of such languages: save more, retire with more wealth, smoke less, practice safer sex, and are less obese. This holds both across countries and within countries when comparing demographically similar native households. The evidence does not support the most obvious forms of common causation. I discuss implications for theories of intertemporal choice.

Strong Ties And Strong Influences: Social Networks And Hiv Prevention, Nicole M. Wengerd

Master's Theses - Sociology and Anthropology

This research builds on the social-oriented literature of HIV-risk behaviors in Gondar, Ethiopia by investigating influential social networks and why individuals would deviate from the norms established by their community.

Why Don’T You Understand?, Susan E. Murray

Lake Union Herald

No abstract provided.

Graduate Students’ Teaching Experiences Improve Their Methodological Research Skills, David F. Feldon, James Peugh, Briana E. Timmerman, Michelle A. Maher, Melissa Hurst, Denise Strickland, Joanna A. Gilmore, Cindy Stiegelmeyer

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduate students are often encouraged to maximize their engagement with supervised research and minimize teaching obligations. However, the process of teaching students engaged in inquiry provides practice in the application of important research skills. Using a performance rubric, we compared the quality of methodological skills demonstrated in written research proposals for two groups of early career graduate students (those with both teaching and research responsibilities and those with only research responsibilities) at the beginning and end of an academic year. After statistically controlling for preexisting differences between groups, students who both taught and conducted …

Protecting Your Retirement Savings From Potential Creditors, Pension Action Center, Gerontology Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Pension Action Center Publications

State and federal laws provide strong protections to New England residents to shield their retirement savings from creditors. The particular protections available depend on whether you have filed for bankruptcy, how your retirement savings are kept, and where you live.

Meta|Morphosis: From Real-Time To Online, Kopana Terry

Library Presentations

No abstract provided.

Ncaa Division I Football Bowl Subdivision: The Importance Of Recruiting And Its Relationship With Team Performance, Nathan S. Lloyd

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Talent wins college football games. Wins bring in money. Colleges, fans and media hype up the recruiting season as the key to success in the college football season. Is it though? Athletic programs spend large sums of capital and resources to recruit the most talented players possible. This paper explores the relationship between recruited talent and team performance using a simultaneous equations model. Higher players’ talent leads to better team performance and a recruiting class has its biggest impact immediately following signing. A team’s performance, especially of the most recent season, impacts its ability to recruit. Talent and success experience …

Natural Resource Curse In Nepal With Emphasis On Deforestation And Violence, Abhinav Pathak

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

For many decades, economists have discussed the role of agricultural productivity and natural resources in economic development. By the late 20th century, various studies showed the poor growth experience of resource-rich countries in the post- world war-II period. Doppellhofer (2000) concluded that none of the countries with extremely abundant natural resources in 1970 grew rapidly for the next 20 years, with the exception of Malaysia, Mauritius and Iceland. Other studies that yielded similar conclusions include Auty (1990), Gelb (1988), Sachs and Warner (1995, 1999), and Gylfason et al. (1999). This phenomenon of lower economic growth among resource abundant countries is …

Examining The Relationship Between Fact Learning And Higher Order Learning Via Retrieval Practice, Pooja Kay Agarwal '01

Doctoral Dissertations

The development of higher order skills is a desired outcome of education. Some believe that higher order learning can be improved directly, whereas others argue that higher order learning can be improved via the enhancement of factual or conceptual knowledge. The relationship between fact and higher order learning is often speculated, but empirically unknown.

This project examines whether retrieval practice via quizzing, a strategy typically used to enhance fact learning, can be used as a strategy to improve higher order skills in both laboratory and applied settings. In the current study, higher order skills were considered to comprise the understand, …

Three Essays On Opacity, Corporate Governance, And Credit Ratings, Yiwen Gu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the first essay, utilizing a more recent and expanded 20-year sample 1991-2010 of dual-rated bonds issued, I confirm Morgan's (2002) finding that banks are relatively more opaque than nonbanks. The likelihood of a rating split is higher, and the magnitude of the rating gap is larger, for banks than nonnbanks. Moreover, rating agency disagreements are more significant for banks with relatively higher loan and trading securities holdings and maintain lower capital, and for banks engaged in mortgage securitization. Importantly, I find that rating agency disagreements reflect market proxies of information uncertainty. Further, opacity makes external financing more costly. Equity …

Urban Consumption In Late 19th-Century Dorchester, Jennifer Poulsen

Anthropology, Historical Archaeology Masters Theses Collection

This thesis examines the bottles recovered from an 1895 fill deposit at the Blake House site in Dorchester, MA, to determine what inconspicuous consumption reveals about the anonymous consumers of Dorchester in the late 19th century. The assemblage is composed of 1,892 pieces of bottle glass, representing food, alcohol, medicine, and household products, 73 with original paper labels. The analysis presented here demonstrates the consumers were from several households and included men, women and children from immigrant populations. Despite evidence for intensive recycling of bottles, indicating that these individuals were under economic stress, they had some amount of discretionary money …

Adopting An Attitude Of Wisdom In Organizational Rhetorical Theory And Practice: Contemplating The Ideal And The Real, Rebecca J. Meisenbach, Sarah Bonewits Feldner

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Research and practice in external rhetoric often fall short of ideals both in terms of widespread use of a rhetorical perspective and in achieving dialogic conditions in the public sphere. In this response, the authors consider potential explanations for this shortfall, focusing on challenges that exist on a theoretical level within organizational rhetoric scholarship and on a practical level as individuals and organizations interact.

The Role And Influence Of Leisure Activities And Companions During A Study Abroad Experience, Cindy Hartman

All Theses

In an attempt to create rigorous study abroad programs, international educators frequently debate the design of study abroad programs. Design elements include intercultural contact, level of immersion and the balance of structured and unstructured activities (Sutton, Miller, & Rubin, 2007). International education researchers have found that unstructured free time, or leisure, during study abroad programming gives students opportunities to connect with the host culture and leads to attitude changes in how students feel about themselves as well as how they perceive the host country and its citizens (McCabe, 1994; Meyer-Lee & Warfield, 2006; Nyaupane, Teye & Paris, 2008). However, no …

The Effects Of Motivational Climate And Coaching Behaviors On Sport Commitment In Recreational Youth Sports, Michael Felak

All Theses

ABSTRACT
Youth sports are a means for children to develop physically, mentally, and socially. Recent studies show that 75% of children drop out of sports by age 13. One of the main reasons that children discontinue sport participation is pressure from parents and coaches. Researchers have shown that certain coach-created motivational climates lead to youth outcomes such as initiative and identity reflection. This study measured perceived motivational climate, basic psychological needs satisfaction, perceived competence, self-esteem, and how those constructs impact sport commitment. Two hundred and twenty children (ages 8-12) playing youth sports in a southeastern recreation department were surveyed at …

Price Discrimination Among Different Strengths Of The Same Drugs, Shanshan Ni

All Theses

This thesis studies the price discrimination through the drug's market. Using the data from the USA and Chinese drugs' markets, we are looking for the factors what might affect the price discrimination. Counting the price per mg/ml and classifying the drugs by the diseases, we find that the price discrimination of the anti-infective drugs is the smallest in both countries, the drugs' prices are positively related to the price discrimination, and the standard deviation of the American drug's prices is smaller than the standard deviation of the Chinese drug's prices.

Rrh Library Newsletter, August 2011, Libraries At Rochester Regional Health

Rochester Regional Health authored publications and proceedings

Newsletter sections include: Heat-Related Illnesses; Please pardon our dust!

Journal Citation Reports Training Opportunity, Georgia Southern University, Zach S. Henderson Library

Library Publications (1999-2023)

• Journal Citation Reports Training Opportunity

Losers And Losers: Some Demographics Of Medical Malpractice Tort Reforms, Andrew I. Friedson, Thomas J. Kniesner

Center for Policy Research

Our research examines individual differences in the effects of medical malpractice tort reforms on pre-trial settlement speed and settlement amounts by age and most likely settlement size. Findings of note include that, unlike previously assumed, both absolute and percentage losses from tort reform are small for infants in an asset value sense and that the prime-aged working population is the group most negatively affected by tort reform. Maximum entropy quantile regressions highlight the robustness of our conclusions and reveal that the settlement losses most informative for policy evaluation differ greatly from mean regression estimates.

An Evaluation Of The Economic Impact Of National Football League Mega-Events, Robert Baade, Victor Matheson

Economics Department Working Papers

This paper evaluates the magnitude and the economic impact of NFL mega-events including the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl. The paper also reviews the theory behind the usual findings that the observed economic benefits of mega-events are almost always a fraction of the benefits claimed a priori.

Optimal Capital Taxation And Consumer Uncertainty, Justin Svec

Economics Department Working Papers

This paper analyzes the impact of consumer uncertainty on optimal fiscal policy in a model with capital. The consumers lack confidence about the probability model that characterizes the stochastic environment and so apply a max-min operator to their optimization problem. An altruistic fiscal authority does not face this Knightian uncertainty. It is shown analytically that the government, in responding to consumer uncertainty, no longer sets the expected capital tax rate exactly equal to zero, as is the case in the full-confidence benchmark model. However, our numerical results indicate that the government does not diverge far from this value. Even though …

Modern Views Of Caste: The Pervasiveness Of Western Democratic And Christian Thought, Jaclyn Smith

Student Works

Within anthropology the study of India and her caste system has been vast. Caste in India is a complex hierarchical system that is foundationally grounded in Hinduism. Social mobility, marriage, daily habits and every aspect of life is affected by caste. India over the last two centuries has been occupied and built up by western invaders. This influence has combined to effect Indian cultural norms and daily life. When Indian constitution was established in 1950, provisions protecting against discrimination based upon caste, gender, age, etc. were put into effect.

Bookmarks 2011, Evelyn Barker

Information Literacy Resources-Archive

Bookmarks of students and faculty at UT Arlington.

Designing A Raw Water Fee Scheme For Groundwater Extraction In Cagayan De Oro, Philippines, Rosalina Palanca-Tan

Economics Department Faculty Publications

Our earlier study (Palanca-Tan and Bautista 2003) looked into groundwater depletion in Cagayan de Oro City (CDO) and the viability of collecting a raw groundwater fee to control the excessive abstraction of groundwater and to generate revenues to finance watershed preservation activities. This current study is an action research project that endeavored to push the CDO government to legislate and implement a raw groundwater pricing scheme as a resource management tool. The project included a hydrological study that was done to estimate the safe yield of the CDO aquifer. The hydrological study also aimed to equip our research team with …

"Sometimes I Feel Like I'D Do This Job For Free": A Phenomenological Study Exploring Public Relations Practitioners' Beliefs About Immensely Satisfying Work, Peggy M. Rupprecht

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the beliefs of 12 public relations practitioners’ about the construct of immensely satisfying work. The central research question was: What is the meaning of immensely satisfying work for a group of public relations practitioners working in the Midwest? Participants in this study had three or more years of experience as public relations practitioners, were members of, or affiliated with, a professional public relations organization, such as the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), and had experienced, at some time during their professional careers, immensely satisfying work. Eight themes emerged from the semi-structured interviews: Leader Sets …

A Phenomenological Study Of Millennial Generation Cooperative Extension Educators' Development Of Core Competencies, David L. Varner

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to describe the experiences that contribute to the development of core competencies among Millennial Generation, county-based Extension educators in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Division. Fourteen educators were randomly purposefully selected to participate in the study. Participants were born in 1977 or later as determined by Tapscott (2009). Educators’ tenure in Cooperative Extension ranged from two months to seven years. Three themes and associated sub-themes emerged from semi-structured interviews: (a) Blindfolded and Scared—educators were confused, overwhelmed and in need of support; (b) Developing the Big Skills: A Daunting Task—focused on discovering competencies …

Prosocial Behavior As A Protective Factor For Children's Peer Victimization, Emily R. Griese

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study was to investigate the protective role prosocial behaviors may serve for victimized children. Although a significant portion of the victimization literature focuses on the association of victimization with negative outcomes, research findings suggest a need to examine the heterogeneity also apparent in children’s responses to victimization. By beginning to examine the variability in children’s responses to peer victimization, researchers can gain insight into the dynamic process of peer victimization and begin to define what factors might distinguish children who show resiliency to negative effects from victimization from those who do not. Research examining the protective …

Is Less More And More Less…? The Effect Of Two Types Of Interviewer Experience On “Don’T Know” Responses In Calendar And Standardized Interviews, Ipek Bilgen

Survey Research and Methodology Program: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Among interviewing context factors, the level of interviewer experience has been observed to be associated with item nonresponse rates in surveys (Singer et al., 1983, Bailar et al., 1977; Pickery & Loosveldt, 1998). The findings regarding the direction of this association, however, are equivocal. This dissertation addresses competing theories behind the relationship between interviewer experience and item nonresponse. The explored experience types are general interviewer experience, gained via survey administration during a lifetime, and within-study interviewer exposure, gained during administration of a particular study fielding period. Item nonresponse was measured via respondents’ “don’t know” responses.

To date, methodological …

The Development Of Future Orientation: Underpinnings And Related Constructs, Sarah J. Beal

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Future orientation has been conceptualized in a variety of ways across literatures in psychology, sociology, education, and vocation. The lack of a shared definition and measurement across theoretical perspectives has resulted in a challenge in comparing findings across literatures and organizing results in a way that provides a coherent sense of how future orientation impacts later outcomes. Trommsdorff (1979) provided a comprehensive definition of future orientation that included eight dimensions: extension, detail, domain, affect, motivation, control, sequence of events, and number of cognitions. Study 1 was designed to test this definition using measures from five prominent theories of future orientation …