BANK COMPETITION AND CONSUMER SEARCH OVER CREDIT CARD INTEREST RATES

This article models bank competition facing consumers with different search incentives and finds that consumers with higher credit card balances have lower interest rates given their risk class due to their greater search effort. It also finds that a default history leads to higher interest rates. The equilibrium interest rate corresponding to risk type and motive (borrowing versus convenience/transactions) is derived theoretically, and the determinants of the interest rate are estimated using an original data set. Endogeneity of default is handled with a two-equation system.(JEL D14 , D12 , D11 )     

The effect of job rotation intervals on muscle fatigue--lactic acid

This study is a job rotation comparative that aims to define the properly scheme to be in use at the time it is performed. As fatigue plays directly against the work results this comprehensive study about the action of lactic acid over workers at different jobs and strength demand was realized to find the best methodology to maximize those rotations.     

Judgments regarding parental alienation when parental hostility or child sexual abuse is alleged

Abstract

Allegations of Parental Alienation (PA), the systematic disparaging of one parent by the other parent aimed at alienating their child’s affections, as a basis for child custody decisions are highly controversial. Claims of parental hostility or allegations of child sexual abuse in custody cases may trigger concerns about PA. Family court professionals (N?=?280) rated young children’s accuracy of report (e.g., suggestibility, honesty) in general and also read three custody scenarios varying as to whether or not they included allegations of parental hostility or child sexual abuse, or no such allegations. For each scenario, the alleged alienating parent’s gender was experimentally varied between subjects. Participants rated the likelihood that each case involved PA. For the scenario that included allegations of child sexual abuse, professionals who viewed young children as more inaccurate reporters or who read about the mother (rather than a father) as the alleged alienator were more likely to rate the scenario as involving PA. For the scenario that described parental hostility but no child sexual abuse allegations, professionals who were older or female were more likely to judge the scenario as involving parental alienation when a mother (rather than a father) was the alleged alienator, whereas there were no significant predictors of responses to the no-allegation scenarios. Findings are discussed in relation to the difficult task of evaluating custody cases for PA when parental hostility or child sexual abuse is alleged.     

Exposure diversity as a design principle for recommender systems

Personalized recommendations in search engines, social media and also in more traditional media increasingly raise concerns over potentially negative consequences for diversity and the quality of public discourse. The algorithmic filtering and adaption of online content to personal preferences and interests is often associated with a decrease in the diversity of information to which users are exposed. Notwithstanding the question of whether these claims are correct or not, this article discusses whether and how recommendations can also be designed to stimulate more diverse exposure to information and to break potential ‘filter bubbles’ rather than create them. Combining insights from democratic theory, computer science and law, the article makes suggestions for design principles and explores the potential and possible limits of ‘diversity sensitive design’.     

The labour division of Italian couples after a birth: assessing the effect of unobserved heterogeneity

The results of previous studies on the effect of childbearing on both parents’ paid and unpaid work suffer from the difficulty related to the specification of latent variables that influence the relationship between reproductive behaviour of the couple and working activity. The aim of this study is to estimate the effect of transition to parenthood on the partners’ division of labour by accounting for latent variables, such as the bargaining process between partners and endogenous fertility decisions. In particular, this is the first time that our specific estimation strategy has been applied to determine the impact of childbearing on the division of household labour between partners taking into account the reverse causality effect between labour and fertility decisions. We use longitudinal data on married or cohabiting Italian couples provided by the Italian panel survey of the Generation and Gender Program. Our results are consistent with previous studies, and show that the birth of a child affects a woman’s unpaid labour strongly and positively and her paid labour negatively, while men’s work is mostly unaffected. Moreover, when partners hold traditional attitudes regarding gender roles and the family, the female partner is even more strongly affected by childbearing in terms of total amount of labour (paid plus unpaid). However, our sensitivity analysis shows that these results appear only when our correction strategy for the misspecification of latent variables is applied.

     

A National Survey of the Provision of Sexual Health Clinical Services by Public Health in Canada: First Insights

Objectives: Data documenting the scope of sexual health clinical services offered as public health in Canada are unavailable. This article provides first insights into the scope of STI and clinical sexual health services available nationally. Methods: Data were gathered using an online survey of 113 Canadian public health units. Results: Almost half of the clinics were not providing expedited partner therapy, one third were not providing point of care testing for HIV and one third were not using syndromic management of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Low rates of physician support were evident. Conclusion: Given the ever-higher rates of STIs, findings from this study identify important challenges to providing comprehensive services.     

Highly‐skilled Migration from China and India to Canada and the United States

Using publicly available data, this article aims to understand how immigration policies in Canada and the United States have affected the flow and utilization of highly‐skilled migrants from China and India. Reviewing existing literature on the policies about, and utilization of, human capital among highly‐skilled migrants, and describing the policy contexts in both receiving countries, we present detailed empirical evidence to show that in spite of their higher education attainment than the general population and the total foreign‐born population, China‐ and India‐born migrants are not immune from the brain waste phenomenon. This is especially so among the India‐born. We end the article with policy implications for both countries.