A Prophet in his Hometown? the Academic Reception of Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” Across Disciplines in France and in the United States

This article analyzes the reception of Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the twenty-first century” from September 2013 to June 2015 in France, where it was first released, and in the United States, by academics who come from a variety of disciplines. We discuss the “spontaneous sociology” offered by some of the actors of this reception and analyze, using their remarks as a starting point, the major predictors of the content of an academic review of Piketty. Our results highlight the strong effect of passing time on the content of the reviews – three clear phases can be identified in the reception of the book showing a “proteus effect” pattern. They also emphasize the importance of understanding how academic disciplines structure the debate – much more so than the country of residence. In fact, most of the opinions academics express on Piketty’s book are tied to their departmental affiliations. We look at how this link articulates the intellectual structures of the disciplines with field theory. Our results suggest a strong autonomy of the social scientific field from more general public concerns.     

The politics of collective repair: examining object-relations in a postwork society

In this paper, we look at repair as an emergent focus of recent activism in affluent societies, where a number of groups are reclaiming practices of repair as a form of political and ecological action. Ranging from those that fight for legislative change to those groups who are trying to support ecological and social change through everyday life practices, repair is beginning to surface tensions in everyday life and as such poses opportunities for its transformation. We survey a few of the practices that make up this movement in its various articulations, to take stock of their current political import. While we suggest that these practices can be seen as an emergent lifestyle movement, they should not be seen as presenting a unified statement. Rather, we aim to show that they articulate a spectrum of political positions, particularly in relation to the three specific issues of property, pedagogy and sociality. These three dimensions are all facets of current internal discrepancies of repair practices and moreover express potential bifurcations as this movement evolves. Drawing on a diverse methodology that includes discourse analysis and participant observation, we suggest some of the ways in which this growing area of activity could play a significant role in resisting the commodification of the everyday and inventing postwork alternatives.     

Multivariate-multiple circular regression

We introduce a fully model-based approach of studying functional relationships between a multivariate circular-dependent variable and several circular covariates, enabling inference regarding all model parameters and related prediction. Two multiple circular regression models are presented for this approach. First, for an univariate circular-dependent variable, we propose the least circular mean-square error (LCMSE) estimation method, and asymptotic properties of the LCMSE estimators and inferential methods are developed and illustrated. Second, using a simulation study, we provide some practical suggestions for model selection between the two models. An illustrative example is given using a real data set from protein structure prediction problem. Finally, a straightforward extension to the case with a multivariate-dependent circular variable is provided.     

A robust test of exogeneity based on quantile regressions

In this paper, we propose a robust test of exogeneity. The test statistics is constructed from quantile regression estimators, which are robust to heavy tails of errors. We derive the asymptotic distribution of the test statistic under the null hypothesis of exogeneity at a given quantile. The finite sample properties of the test are investigated through Monte Carlo simulations that exhibit not only good size and power properties, but also good robustness to outliers.     

Corporate social responsibility: the organizational view

Designing strategies for corporate social responsibility (CSR)-practice nowadays has become essential for organizations. Notwithstanding, how organizations appear internally in a socially responsible context toward their employees has been insufficiently investigated. This study aims at ascertaining how Internal CSR can be conceptualized as well as how it affects employees’ commitment. To do so, the manifestations of Internal CSR are discussed based on social identity theory and further literature, while the developed research model is checked for suitability through a survey generating 2081 employee responses from an international pharmaceutical company. As one result, it can be stated that the factors proposed to constitute Internal CSR are confirmed. Further, the findings entail the following conclusions: Internal CSR has a notable influence on employees’ Affective Organizational Commitment whilst relatively moderate impacting Normative Organizational Commitment. Additionally, Affective Organizational Commitment adopts a mediating function regarding Normative Organizational Commitment.     

Ensemble prospectism

Incomplete preferences displaying ‘mildly sweetened’ structure are common, yet theoretically problematic. This paper examines the properties of the rankings induced by the set of all coherent completions of the mildly sweetened partial preference structure. Building on these properties, I propose an ensemble-based refinement of Hare’s (Analysis 70:237–247, 2010) prospectism criterion for rational choice when preferences are incomplete. Importantly, this ensemble-based refinement is immune to Peterson’s (Theory and Decision 78:451–456, 2015) weak money pump argument. Hence, ensemble prospectism ensures outcome rationality. Furthermore, by recognizing the structural isomorphism between mildly sweetened preference structures and Cover’s splitting rule in Blackwell’s Pick the Largest Number problem (Ann Math Stat 22:393–399, 1951), ensemble prospectism can be shown to yield better-than-even odds of selecting the ex-post higher utility option—despite the absence of all-things-considered preferences ex ante.     

Objective Bayesian hypothesis testing in regression models with first-order autoregressive residuals

This article considers the objective Bayesian testing in the normal regression models with first-order autoregressive residuals. We propose some solutions based on a Bayesian model selection procedure to this problem where no subjective input is considered. We construct the proper priors for testing the autocorrelation coefficient based on measures of divergence between competing models, which is called the divergence-based (DB) priors and then propose the objective Bayesian decision-theoretic rule, which is called the Bayesian reference criterion (BRC). Finally, we derive the intrinsic test statistic for testing the autocorrelation coefficient. The behavior of the Bayes factor-based DB priors is examined by comparing with the BRC in a simulation study and an example.     

<Emphasis Type="Bold">Women’s Progress for Men’s Gain? Gender-Specific Changes in the Return to Education as Measured by Family Standard of Living, 1990 to 2009–2011</Emphasis>

This study investigates gender-specific changes in the total financial return to education among persons of prime working ages (35–44 years) using U.S. Census data from 1990 and 2000, and the 2009–2011 American Community Survey. We define the total financial return to education as the family standard of living as measured by family income adjusted for family size. Our results indicate that women experienced significant progress in educational attainment and labor market outcomes over this time period. Ironically, married women’s progress in education and personal earnings has led to greater improvement in the family standard of living for married men than for women themselves. Gender-specific changes in assortative mating are mostly responsible for this paradoxical trend. Because the number of highly educated women exceeds the number of highly educated men in the marriage market, the likelihood of educational marrying up has substantially increased for men over time while women’s likelihood has decreased. Sensitivity analyses show that the greater improvement in the family standard of living for men than for women is not limited to prime working-age persons but is also evident in the general population. Consequently, women’s return to education through marriage declined while men’s financial gain through marriage increased considerably.     

Demographic Change and Fiscal Sustainability in Asia

Changes in the population age structure can have significant effects on fiscal sustainability since they can affect both government revenue and expenditure. In this paper, we project government revenue, expenditure, and fiscal balance in developing Asia up to 2050 using a simple stylized model and the National Transfer Accounts data set. Rapidly aging countries are likely to suffer a tangible deterioration of fiscal sustainability under their current tax and expenditure system. On the other hand, rapid economic growth can improve fiscal health in poorer, relatively young countries with still-growing working-age populations. Overall, our results indicate that Asia’s population aging will adversely affect its fiscal sustainability, pointing to a need for Asian countries to further examine the impact of demographic shifts on their fiscal health.