GROUP SIZE AND SOCIAL TIES IN MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS

Microfinance programs provide poor people with small loans given to jointly liable self-selected groups. Follow-up loans provide incentives to repay. We experimentally investigate the influence of those features on strategic default. Each group member invests in an individual risky project, whose outcome is known only to the individual investor. Subjects decide whether to contribute to group repayment or not. Only those with successful projects can contribute. The experiment ends if too few repay. We investigate group size and social ties effects and observe robust high repayment rates. Group lending outperforms individual lending. Self-selected groups show high but less stable contributions. (JEL C90 , H41 , I38 , O16 , Z13 )     

The Dramaturgical Model of Behavior: Its Strengths and Weaknesses*

By means of the dramaturgical model we freshly illuminate social behavior as role-like “performances” in which persons manage the impressions that others get of them. This impression management involves the concealment of data in a “dramatic” struggle with those others who wish to penetrate one's “mask.” But the chief limitations of the dramaturgical model are that it excites the invalid inferences that offstage “roles” are more like stage actors' roles than they really are, and that the person is nothing but these “roles.” The differences between onstage and offstage behavior are kept in view when the metaphorical concept of “role playing” is re-connected to its source in role playing onstage. Through an analysis of theatre and the concepts of appearance and time we conclude that while we must appear to others in a “role-like” way offstage in order to be ourselves, we are nevertheless involved in world-time offstage in a way that fundamentally distinguishes our “role-playing” from an actor's role playing. We are our “roles”, but not just our “roles.”     

Repayment rate of loans from semi-formal financial institutions among small-scale farmers in Ethiopia: Two-limit Tobit analysis

Improving small-scale farmers’ access to credit is one of the ways of achieving increased agricultural productivity to reduce poverty in Ethiopia. In this study, a two-limit Tobit model was used to analyze the determinants of repayment rate of loans from semi-formal financial institutions among small-scale farmers in Ethiopia. Small group lending, was found to be related to the loan repayment rate of the farmers positively and significantly. Furthermore, agro-ecology, total land holding size, total livestock holding, experience in the use of agricultural extension services, contact with extension agents and income from off-farm activities were found to affect the loan repayment rate of the households significantly. Consideration of these factors would reduce default rates on borrowed funds from semi-formal credit sources in the area.     

LIVING IN TWO NEIGHBORHOODS—SOCIAL INTERACTION EFFECTS IN THE LABORATORY

Field evidence suggests that people belonging to the same group often behave similarly, that is, behavior exhibits social interaction effects. We conduct a laboratory experiment that avoids the identification problem present in the field and allows us to study the behavioral logic of social interaction effects. Our novel design feature is that each subject is simultaneously a member of two randomly assigned and identical groups where only members (“neighbors”) are different. We study behavior in a coordination game with multiple equilibria and a public goods game, which has only one equilibrium in material payoffs. We speak of social interactions if the same subject at the same time makes group‐specific decisions that depend on their respective neighbors' decisions. We find that a majority of subjects exhibit social interaction effects both when the game has multiple equilibria in material payoffs and when it only has one equilibrium. (JEL C91, H41, K42, H26)     

Migrant Assimilation in Europe: A Transnational Family Affair1

The paper advances our empirical and theoretical understanding of migrant assimilation. It does so by focusing on a very particular group of individuals who appear more likely than other migrant types to “go native.” We call these individuals “mixed nationality relationship migrants” (i.e., migrants who have committed to a life outside their home country because of the presence of a foreign partner). The paper argues that the transnational family milieus that emerge from this form of international migration are critical to the assimilation process. Empirical material from 11 in‐depth interviews with female migrants in Britain (Sheffield) and France (Paris) supports our argument. We also suggest that such “extreme” assimilation is more likely within a regional migratory system – like the EU – where the “identity frontiers” crossed in the formation of a transnational family are relatively shallow.     

AUDIT STATE DEPENDENT TAXPAYER COMPLIANCE: THEORY AND EVIDENCE FROM COLOMBIA

We develop and analyze a dynamic model of individual taxpayer compliance choice that predicts “audit state dependent taxpayer compliance,” by distinguishing between forward-looking versus myopic versus naïve behavior. We then test experimentally the audit state dependent model by reporting the results from the first tax compliance experiment run in Colombia. We find that subjects' compliance rates increase with greater enforcement. We also find more novel results: fine rates should be increased after an audit, and “nudging” myopic individuals toward reporting a constant rather than a fluctuating proportion of income would benefit both the taxpayer and the tax authority.(JEL H26, C91)     

SEPARATING BETWEEN UNOBSERVED CONSUMER TYPES: EVIDENCE FROM AIRLINES

We propose an alternative approach to identify unobserved consumer types and assess whether firms price discriminate. Unlike other screening schemes that rely on quantity discounts or product differentiation, in our finite mixture structure individuals have unit demands and the product is homogeneous. We implement the model using an original U.S. airlines data set. The results support the existence of two demand types. The high‐type “business” traveler is less price sensitive, has a higher valuation, and pays a higher price than the low type “tourist.” The proportion of high types also increases as the departure date nears. (JEL C23, L93, R41)     

Three Types of Memory for Childhood Sexual Abuse: Relationships to Characteristics of Abuse and Psychological Symptoms∗

ABSTRACT

Data from a clinical sample (N?=?88) reporting childhood sexual abuse was compared by types of memory, abuse characteristics, and psychological symptoms. Three types of memory were identified from a questionnaire (“Always” n?=?27 [31%], “Recovered” n?=?41 [46%], and “Both” n?=?20 [23%]). When compared with narrative reports from a subset (n?=?30) of the sample, the lines between “Always,” “Recovered,” and “Both” types of memory were ambiguous. Consistency across reports, however, was 83%. Memories classified as either “Recovered” or “Both” were associated with earlier age-at-onset and more severe psychological symptoms compared to those who “Always” remembered CSA. No significant differences were found between the “Both” and “Recovered” groups.     

Migration,Time, and Religioethnic Identification Among U.S. Jews1

This article examines changes between 1985–1990 and 1995–2000 in relationships between migration and religioethnic identification among U.S. Jews. The results of multivariate analyses of the 1990 and 2000 National Jewish Population Surveys show that Jewish background characteristics have lost their significance as determinants of internal migration and, especially, migration across state boundaries. Concurrently, migration no longer constitutes a serious threat to group continuity and erstwhile negative effects on major religious and social behaviors have disappeared. When the two surveys were integrated into one data set, it was found that “time” enhances the inclination of Jews to move and strengthens their religious and ethnic commitments (though not their commitments to informal Jewish networks). The results are discussed in reference to three competing perspectives of migration‐identification relationships—“selectivity,”“disruption,” and “heightening”—and in the wider theoretical context of religious and ethnic processes in the contemporary United States.     

ON THE EXTERNAL VALIDITY OF LABORATORY TAX COMPLIANCE EXPERIMENTS

An essential issue for laboratory experiments to inform policy debates is the “external validity” of the experimental results; that is, does behavior in the laboratory apply to behavior that occurs in the naturally occurring world? We examine this issue of external validity in the specific context of laboratory experiments on tax compliance, using two different types of evidence. We find that the behavioral patterns of subjects in the laboratory conform to those of individuals making a similar decision in naturally occurring settings. We also find that the behavioral responses of students are largely the same as those of nonstudents in identical experiments (JEL C9, H0, H3)     

Facing Facts: An Analysis of the Early “Nude Self-Portraits” by Robert Giard

Early in his career, photographer Robert Giard took on an elemental aesthetic “chore”: the self-portrait. The project was an amalgam; it was the self-portrait in the sense that he was the model, and it was the nude in the sense that he was naked. But in his handling of these 2 genres, Giard broke with these categories as they are typically understood. Grouping his “self-portraits” under 3 rubrics—“candid,” “headless,” and “neoclassical”—Giard appeared to toy with standard definitions. Words and images suggest tensions held in balance: disclosure vs. concealment; confession vs. secrecy; present vs. retrospective; identification vs. obfuscation; personal vs. impersonal. Indeed, these “self-portraits,” in which the subject concealed his face, encourage us, aware that Giard was a gay man, to wonder if these pictures are not an obvious metaphor for the status of homosexuals at the period in which they were made.     

Gender,Sex, and the Sexual

Laplanche distinguishes the sexual [le sexuel] and the sexuated [le sexué]. He goes on to ask whether the current tendency to speak of gender identity merely a lexical change or something more profound. If it is a change, is it positive or the sign of a repression? If the latter, where is the repression to be found? There follows an outline of how the triad, gender/sex/sexual, functions in the human being's early history. Four hypotheses serve as conclusion: (1) The precedence of gender over sex, which overturns the habits of thought that place the “biological” before the “social.” (2) The precedence of assignment over symbolization. (3) Primary identification, which, far from being a primary identification “with” (the adult) is a primary identification “by” (the adult). (4) The contingent, perceptual, illusory nature of the anatomical difference of sex, the true destiny of modern civilization.     

HISTORY DEPENDENCE AND THE FORMATION OF SOCIAL PREFERENCES: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

We study the minimal contributing set (MCS) game, a three‐person sequential step‐level public goods game. The behavior of critical third players changes with experience in this game even though they face no strategic or payoff uncertainty. We explore why these changes occur by manipulating subjects' experience in the first half of the experiment. The treatments give subjects very different initial experiences, but all treatments move subjects' choices toward experienced subjects' play in the control sessions. Long‐run play is indistinguishable across treatments. Our results are more consistent with the “discovered preferences” hypothesis ( Plott 1996 ) than either the “constructed preference” or “reference point” hypotheses. (JEL H41, C72, C92)     

Economic man and selfish genes: the implications of group selection for economic valuation and policy

A basic tenet of socio-economics is that economic behavior is shaped by social bonds and cultural context. A relevant controversy in evolutionary biology is group selection and the related issue of altruistic behavior, that is, behavior neutral or detrimental to the individual but positive for the survival of the group. In this paper we examine the parallel controversies surrounding “economic man” and “selfish genes” with particular emphasis on the policy implications of group selection. We argue for the replacement of standard welfare economics with models of human behavior in the spirit of “consilience” between economic theory and the best available science from other relevant disciplines.     

Pathways to European identity formation: a tale of two models

This article argues that there are two distinct logics that underlie existing studies on European identification. These are grounded in models of collective identity formation that stress either messages inscribed in discursive processes or practices situated in socio-spatial relations – respectively, the “culturalist” and the “structuralist” models. The first of these models considers identification as a direct outcome of the exposure to content-specific symbols, narratives, and messages; the second, as an emerging property of socio-spatial interactions that are content-free of identity references. The first is logocentric, while the second is democentric and topocentric. This article focuses particularly on the second and less-developed research tradition which explores the effects of cross-national practices. The limits and potential of this model are discussed, setting an agenda for empirical research aiming to better elucidate the causal dynamics of European identity formation and adjudicate between these competing explanations.     

The Problems of Irony: Philosophical Reflection on Method,Discourse and Interpretation

This article provides a broad overview of the problem of irony to contemporary hermeneutics. It offers a thematic account of the effects of irony on interpretation, and argues that the problems of irony are embedded within the relation between the free play of irony and the regulative role of interpretative discourse. It argues, against hermeneutic theories such as that of Hans‐Georg Gadamer, that the “problems” which irony poses for interpretation can be seen as symptomatic of irony's identification: that irony is, essentially, problematic. It argues that any account of irony needs to account for the value of irony as a problem, rather than subsuming such problems into larger models of understanding. The article explores this notion by looking at the interpretative “discourse of irony” and noting its thematic features. It is argued that the account of irony as a negation of meaning is intrinsically tied to the construction of a sovereign economy in response to the excesses of ironic possibility, but that such a construction is determined only by the stepping‐away from the initial ironic possibilities which enabled its construction. Using the work of Gadamer as an example, the article argues that this in itself does not close irony, but produces yet more irony which frustrates the interpretative act while lending itself to interpretative possibility.     

Examining the Psychometric Properties of the Identify as a Professional Social Worker Subscale

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Identify as a Professional Social Worker Subscale, which assessed the Council on Social Work Education–prescribed competency identify as a professional social worker and conduct oneself accordingly. The results of confirmatory factory analysis indicated that the items on the measure assessed the underlying latent construct of identification as a professional social worker. The item response theory analysis indicated that the measure could be shortened to a four-item measure, and the item “demonstrate professional demeanor in behavior, appearance, and communication” was the highest discriminating item, whereas “advocate for client access to the services of social work” was the lowest discriminating item. Implications for research, measurement development, and the 2015 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards are discussed.     

INVESTMENT CHOICE ARCHITECTURE IN TRUST GAMES: WHEN “ALL‐IN” IS NOT ENOUGH

While many economic interactions feature “All‐or‐Nothing” options nudging investors towards going “all‐in,” such designs may unintentionally affect reciprocity. We manipulate the investor's action space in two versions of the “trust game.” In one version investors can invest either “all” their endowment or “nothing.” In the other version, they can invest any amount of the endowment. Consistent with our intentions‐based model, we show that “all‐or‐nothing” designs coax more investment but limit investors' demonstrability of intended trust. As a result, “all‐in” investors are less generously reciprocated than when they can invest any amount, where full investments are a clearer signal of trustworthiness. (JEL C72, C90, C91, D63, D64, L51)     

Orchestrating Concepts: Kitchen Dynamics and Regime Change in Good Housekeeping and Ideal Home, 1922–2002

It has long been recognized that users and consumers actively appropriate new products and technologies and assimilate them into existing regimes and frames of reference. Much less has been written about how these frames evolve or about how processes of integration and appropriation are sustained and transformed. In this article we analyze “the kitchen” not as a place but as an “orchestrating concept.” We subject “orchestrating concept.” We subject representations of the kitchen, as depicted in Good Housekeeping and Ideal Home (two of the foremost home magazines in Britain) from 1922 to 2002, to two types of analysis. We begin by showing how materials, images, and forms of competence “hang together” at different points in time and how kitchen regimes are formed. We then explore ways of characterizing transitions between one kitchen regime and another. The result is an account not simply of the elements of which kitchens are made but of the changing relations between these constitutive ingredients. The article is at heart about the processes and dynamics of regime change. Although we focus on the kitchen throughout, we do so because we believe better understanding of how meta-level orchestrating concepts like “the kitchen” develop is important for conceptualizing the dynamics of ordinary consumption and everyday practice.     

The concept of chastity in biblical society

A distinction is made between two different but closely related syndromes—“cross gender identification” and “gender behavior disturbance”—in male children. Based on assessment data and systematic clinical observations of a group of 47 such children in a longitudinal research study, a set of factors are identified as relevant to the diagnostic task. Specific diagnostic procedures were developed for the clinical evaluation and psychological testing of male children referred for potential gender dysphoric problems, and these procedures are presented in detail with accompanying rationale.