Eliciting Risk and Time Preferences

We design experiments to jointly elicit risk and time preferences for the adult Danish population. Since subjects are generally risk averse, we find that joint elicitation provides estimates of discount rates that are significantly lower than those found in previous studies and more in line with what would be considered as a priori reasonable rates. The statistical specification relies on a theoretical framework that involves a latent trade‐off between long‐run optimization and short‐run temptation. Estimation of this specification is undertaken using structural, maximum likelihood methods. Our main results based on exponential discounting are robust to alternative specifications such as hyperbolic discounting. These results have direct implications for attempts to elicit time preferences, as well as debates over the appropriate domain of the utility function when characterizing risk aversion and time consistency.     

Becoming an Academic: Early vs. Later Professional Experiences

Abstract

This paper investigates the relevance of both formal training and current career conditions for the professional activity of an academic. We focus on the socialization of a sample of Ph.D. sociologists submitting papers for publication. Using regression procedures, we relate productivity of the training faculty, current publication pressures, sex, and year of degree to publication-related activity. We find that current publication pressures is a better predictor of professional activity than is productivity of the training faculty. In addition, sex appears to mediate professional socialization experiences.     

Parental spanking and subsequent risk for child aggression in father-involved families of young children

This study examined separate and combined maternal and paternal use of spanking with children at age 3 and children's subsequent aggressive behavior at age 5. The sample was derived from a birth cohort study and included families (n = 923) in which both parents lived with the child at age 3. In this sample, 44% of 3-year-olds were spanked 2 times or more in the past month by either parent or both parents. In separate analyses, being spanked more than twice in the prior month at age 3, by either mother or father, was associated with increased child aggression at 5 years. In combined analyses, there was a dose–response association; the greatest risk for child aggression was reported when both parents spanked more than twice in the prior month (adjusted odds ratio: 2.01; [confidence interval: 1.03–3.94]). Violence prevention initiatives should target and engage mothers and fathers in anticipatory guidance efforts aimed at increasing the use of effective and non-aggressive child discipline techniques and reducing the use of spanking.     

Debt and the Built Urban Environment: Examining the Growth of Urban Slums in the Less Developed Countries, 1990–2010

The present study examines the influence of external debt on the change in the proportion of the total population living in urban slum conditions in the less developed countries between 1990 and 2010, drawing from a political economy of the world-system theoretical perspective. Ordinary least squares panel regression illustrates external debt as a percent of gross national income has a statistically significant positive effect producing higher levels of urban slum growth. This result is recurrent across all developing countries but is particularly strong among sub-Saharan African nations. Further, urban population growth 1960–1990 exhibits a positive effect contributing to higher urban slum growth. The results support the hypothesis that external debt burden is an important factor contributing to higher levels of urban slum growth in the less developed countries between 1990 and 2010. This effect, moreover, is particularly strong among sub-Saharan African countries relative to developing countries within other regions of the world.     

An analysis of citizen participation in anti-poverty programmes

This article explores citizen participation, describing levels,forms and benefits of participation by local community members.In particular, it analyses citizen involvement in anti-povertyprogrammes, drawing on primary research in Jamaica, where asocial fund forms a major plank of the national government'spolicy and programme to reduce poverty. Using naturalistic inquirymethods, the research sought evidence of citizen participationin social fund subprojects aimed at improving community infrastructureand social services and strengthening community organizations.This article discusses four types of participation revealedby the research and the implications for community-level approachesto economic improvement and social change.     

Residential preferences,community satisfaction,and the intention to move

This paper explores the role of size of place residential preference in the evolution of the intention to move out of the present community using data from the March 1974 NORC Amalgam Survey. People who prefer to live in a community having different size or location characteristics than their present residence are five times more likely to intend to move than those who have attained their preferred type of residence. Within these two groups, however, the particular configuration of current and preferred residence has no significant effect on the likelihood of intending to move. This finding justifies the creation of a simple dichotomous variable, preference status, contrasting these two groups. Community satisfaction and preference status are highly interrelated and each has an independent effect on intentions to move. Moreover, the effect of preference status on mobility intentions is somewhat larger than that for community satisfaction, indicating that residential preference plays a significant role in the decision-making process regarding migration.