Civilization,Culture, Technology,and the Market

The largest, the cruelest empire in the history of mankind is rapidly disintegrating. But we must not be deluded. The ruins of great empires do not yet mean the emergence of a new, happier, and wiser society. The empire has not yet disintegrated entirely. But even when it does, this will not mean that the people inhabiting one-sixth of the earth's surface will live better, that life will become happy, and that our countrymen will be freer, richer, healthier, better educated, and more humane. Even the cessation of the activity of the CPSU does not mean that the destructive force of lawlessness, militarism, the suppression of human dignity, stagnation, conservatism, the terrible discomfort of everyday life, unprecedented exploitation, general incompetence, parasitism, and technological backwardness is a museum relic forever consigned to the past.     

Uncertainty,the bargaining problem,and the Nash-Zeuthen solution

The Zeuthen bargaining model occupies a prominent place among those theories of the bargaining process that have been formulated and expounded by economists. Its solution to the bargaining problem is essentially economic, since invariant utility functions based on economic factors alone determine the outcome. However, this paper shows that a necessary condition for reaching the Zeuthen solution (shown by Harsanyi to be mathematically equivalent to the game-theoretic solution of Nash's theory) is that bargainers initially take up positions on opposite sides of the outcome that maximizes their utility product. Whether utility functions are mutually known or unknown, inherent in the bargaining situation itself is the requirement that bargainers be at least initially uncertain as to each other's subsequent concession behaviour. With uncertainty, von Neumann-Morgenstern rationality implies that each bargainer would make an initial demand that maximizes the expected gain from holding fast. Therefore, even if Zeuthen's concession criterion should subsequently dictate concession behaviour, expected utility maximization within the context of subjective uncertainty may well yield initial demands that are inconsistent with reaching the Nash-Zeuthen solution. Finally, a general methodological conclusion that emerges from the analysis is that, since the bargaining process necessarily proceeds from a context of subjective uncertainty, greater emphasis needs to be placed on its role as a device for affecting expectations.     

Self-consciousness, Exposure, and the Blush

Little is known about the circumstances that give rise to blushing and there have been no systematic attempts to classify and analyze the types of situations where it occurs. The study reported here analyzes a sample of recollections of occasions and a selection of literary episodes. The two sources of evidence yield somewhat different patterns but prominent themes in both are being the centre of attention, whether this is positive, neutral or negative, and the disclosure, or threat of exposure, of a private or sensitive topic. Inspection of example suggests that a blush is associated with self-consciousness. More specifically, it is elicited when circumstances cause someone to take another's perspective on the self, and this generates awareness of a discrepancy between his or her position and this position as it appears to the other. A blush does not require that the other take an adverse view of the actor's position. The blush shows sensitivity to the opinions of others and it is its capacity to communicate this that makes it effective in deflecting aggressive or rejecting responses from others.     

Immigration,terrorism, and the economy

In this paper, we look at the interaction of terrorism with immigrants’ quality of life (measured by the foreign-born unemployment rate and globalization level) for OECD countries, and its impact on GDP per capita. We find strong evidence that GDP per capita is adversely affected by domestic terrorism. The magnitude of this effect is also substantial: at the sample mean, a one-standard-deviation increase in the number of domestic incidents is found to decrease GDP per capita between 5.7 % and 7.8 % of the sample average depending on the specification used. These results contrast with previous research which finds that transnational terrorism primarily affects these economic indicators. We find strong evidence that when we factor in the interaction of the foreign-born unemployment rate with either type of terrorism, an increase in the foreign-born unemployment rate decreases GDP per capita. On the policy front, we show that peace is valuable, and OECD countries will benefit by adopting policies to reduce the problem of terrorism. We also find that an increase in the foreign-born unemployment rate has a large negative impact on GDP per capita and policies that close the gap between foreign-born and native-born unemployment rates (for example, those aimed at reducing discrimination against immigrants) help the economy.     

The Young,the Old,and the Life Review:

No abstract available for this article.     

The Minimax,the Minimin,and the Hurwicz Adjustment Principle

In this paper the Hurwicz decision rule is applied to an adjustment problem concerning the decision whether a given action should be improved in the light of some knowledge on the states of nature or on other actors' behaviour. In comparison with the minimax and the minimin adjustment principles the general Hurwicz rule reduces to these specific classes whenever the underlying loss function is quadratic and knowledge is given by an ellipsoidal set. In the framework of the adjustment model discussed in this paper Hurwicz's optimism index can be interpreted as a mobility index representing the actor's attitude towards new external information. Examples are given that serve to illustrate the theoretical findings.     

发挥优势,继承传统,贴近科研,完善服务——中国社会科学院图书馆组建十周年的几点思考

2005年是中国社会科学院图书馆组建十周年。在过去的十年里,有关组建院图书馆的利弊问题,一直是仁者见仁,智者见智,争论从来没有停止过。如今,院图书馆所具备的优势正在逐渐显露出来。院图书馆在信息资源共享、现代化信息技术的应用、服务深度和广度的拓展、人才队伍建设和学科建设等各个方面都取得了显著的发展。在看到成绩的同时,我们也应当清醒地看到,在显示大型现代化图书馆优势的同时,小型的传统的研究所图书馆所具备的许多特色和优势没有得到很好的继承和发扬。进一步做好图书馆工作的关键就在于如何继续发挥大馆优势,如何继承研究所…     

Strategy-proofness,tops-only,and the uniform rule

In the division problem with single-peaked preferences, an allocation rule is strategy-proof for same tops if no one can gain by reporting a false preference relation having the true peak. This new condition is so weak that it is implied by strategy-proofness and tops-only. We show that the uniform rule is the only rule satisfying this mild property under efficiency and envy-freeness. We then analyze how largely the preference domain can be extended with admitting a rule satisfying the three axioms, and show that the single-plateaued domain is the unique such maximal domain.     

Unemployment,Medicaid provisions,the mental health industry,and suicide

This study examines the association between unemployment, Medicaid provisions, the mental health industry, and adult suicides in nine US northeastern states from 1999 to 2009. Results show that increased unemployment is associated with more Medicaid beneficiaries and higher health care spending per beneficiary with no significant relationship with Medicaid mental health spending. The Medicaid beneficiary rate is positively associated with the number of mental health clinics, mental health and substance abuse social workers, mental health counselors, and psychiatrists, with no significant association with mental health physician offices or psychologists. Unemployment is also related with increasing suicide rates for the overall population and White non-Hispanics, aged 16–64, with the worst association for White non-Hispanic males. The composition of the mental health industry is also associated with suicide rates. Maintaining an appropriate mix of mental health facilities and professionals to prevent, diagnose, and treat mental health disorders remains a critical public health challenge.     

The government, the market, and the problem of catastrophic loss

This article addresses the comparative advantage of the government to the private property/casualty insurance industry for the provision of insurance coverage for catastrophic losses. That the government can play an important role as an insurer of societal losses has been a central public policy principle since at least the New Deal. In addition, our government typically automatically provides forms of specific relief following unusually severe or unexpected disasters, which itself can be viewed as a form of ex post insurance. This article argues that, for systemic reasons, the government is much less effective than the private property/casualty insurance market in providing coverage of losses generally, but especially of losses in contexts of catastrophes.     

农民流动、城市化、劳工权益与西部开发——当代中国的市场经济与公民权问题

“下苦人”的悲歌———从摄影集《麦客》谈起这些年来各种渲染“民俗文化”的产品可谓铺天盖地了。为了经济 (旅游业 )利益、政治动机 (反对“全盘西化”)以及精英阶层高雅的审美需求 ,“开发民俗文化资源”在一些地方已经成了口号。从纯粹商业化的各种“民俗村”、“民俗文化风情旅游”和“民俗文化节” ,到具有浓厚政治色彩的曲阜祭孔大典和黄陵祭祖仪式 ,从文人雅客的民俗采风 ,到文化人类学家的民俗研究 ,各种现存的、已死亡的乃至纯粹是今人“创作”(如“大红灯笼高高挂”)出来的“民俗”让人眼花缭乱。所以当友人推荐一本“民俗摄影…