Which Inequality Makes People Dissatisfied with Their Lives? Evidence of the Link Between Life Satisfaction and Inequalities

This paper aims at establishing a clear link between different types of inequality and life satisfaction in Europe. We analyse the relationship between life satisfaction and both income inequality and inequality of opportunity using seven waves of the European Social Survey. The results show that in Europe both income inequality and inequality of opportunity reduce people’s life satisfaction. Our main results suggest that all socio-economic groups are dissatisfied with income inequality, whereas primarily low socio-economic individuals worry about inequality of opportunity. We find that expected mobility is very important in explaining the link between inequality and life satisfaction for all socio-economic groups in Europe. We advance the hypothesis that life satisfaction is conditioned by a mix of normative arguments against inequality and by the fear/possibility to lose/gain a good social position. This result complements findings on the mediating role of social mobility in the relationship with subjective well-being.     

Note on reduction of dimensionality for second-order response surface design model

To reduce the dimensionality of the second-order response surface design model, variance component indices under imposing and non imposing restrictions on the moment matrix toward the orthogonality are derived and presented and the same is illustrated with suitable examples in this article.     

Marginal maximum a posteriori estimation using Markov chain Monte Carlo

Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods, while facilitating the solution of many complex problems in Bayesian inference, are not currently well adapted to the problem of marginal maximum a posteriori (MMAP) estimation, especially when the number of parameters is large. We present here a simple and novel MCMC strategy, called State-Augmentation for Marginal Estimation (SAME), which leads to MMAP estimates for Bayesian models. We illustrate the simplicity and utility of the approach for missing data interpolation in autoregressive time series and blind deconvolution of impulsive processes.     

Particle methods for maximum likelihood estimation in latent variable models

Standard methods for maximum likelihood parameter estimation in latent variable models rely on the Expectation-Maximization algorithm and its Monte Carlo variants. Our approach is different and motivated by similar considerations to simulated annealing; that is we build a sequence of artificial distributions whose support concentrates itself on the set of maximum likelihood estimates. We sample from these distributions using a sequential Monte Carlo approach. We demonstrate state-of-the-art performance for several applications of the proposed approach.     

Les registres de l’action syndicale européenne

This study of how trade union actions have been shaped at the EU level is based on an analysis of the archives of the European Trade Union Confederation. It sheds light on a historical process that has fostered four types of action that now organize European trade union representations. The gradual formation of these types is described while pointing out the causes and explaining their rationales. Emphasis is placed on the complex process whereby institutions have shaped the thinking and acting of trade unions at the EU level. The way that unions form a framework for their practices has effects back upon the shaping of the collective organization.     

Infrastructure in Developing and Transition Countries: Risk and Protection

This article examines two possible strategies for financing post-disaster infrastructure rehabilitation in developing and transition countries: relying on ex ante financing instruments (including insurance, catastrophe bonds, and other risk-transfer instruments) and ex post borrowing or credit. Insurance and other ex ante instruments will increase a country's stability, especially if the government authorities have a difficult time borrowing or otherwise raising funds after a major disaster; however, these instruments have an opportunity cost and can reduce the country's economic growth potential. The cost-benefit tradeoff is therefore one between economic growth through infrastructure investment and added solvency and stability for the economy. This article develops a model to illustrate this tradeoff. The model, which views the infrastructure of a developing or transition country as a nondiversifiable portfolio that generates returns, can provide a basis for evaluating alternative financing options depending on the country's objectives in terms of growth, solvency, and stability.     

Experimental Analysis of the Game in Pathological Gamblers: Effect of the Immediacy of the Reward in Slot Machines

Slot machines are the most “addictive” games because (a) the disorder (pathological gambling) appears more rapidly in these games than with any other; (b) most patients who seek professional help are mainly addicted to electronic gambling, and (c) even though it is not the more frequent game, most of all the money spent on legal games of chance (at least in Spain) goes to slot machines. Structural characteristics of slot machines induce to gamble because electronic games show the main parameters of operant conditioning, mainly the immediacy of the reinforcement. Ten pathological gamblers played slot machine in two conditions: immediate and delayed reinforcement. The results corroborate the importance of the immediacy of the reinforcement in gambling, because when the result appears immediately (after 2 s), more games are played than when the result is delayed only 10 s. Critical issues in problem gambling prevention and public health are discussed.     

Random alliance networks

The morphological properties of kinship and marriage alliance networks, such as circuits, are typically considered as indicators of sociological phenomena — yet, they may also be partly coincidental. To assert the contribution of chance to these morphological features, we develop a standardized method where empirical alliance networks are compared with a random baseline. We apply our framework to a variety of empirical cases and show that some corpuses are remarkably well reconstructed by our random model, while others still feature significant divergencies which may be partly connected to field-based experience. On the whole, our approach may be used to scrutinize the matrimonial role of social groups as asserted by native or ethnological theory.