Men’s Judgment and Behavior Toward Women Wearing High Heels

Research has consistently shown that the appearance of women’s apparel influences men’s behavior and judgment. However, the effect of women’s shoe heels has received little interest. Female confederates wearing black shoes with 0-, 5-, or 9-cm heels walked on the street. In a first experiment, we examined the number of men in the street who smiled at the female confederate. More smiles were addressed to the confederate with high heels. In a second experiment, the confederates asked men and women to respond to a short survey. It was found that high heels increased males’ but not females’ compliance with the request. In a third experiment, photographs of the same woman’s body profile wearing high heels or not were evaluated by men. Results showed that high heels were associated with greater sexiness, overall physical attractiveness, breast attractiveness, beauty, attractiveness to other men, and willingness to date. All the experiments supported the notion that high heels increase women’s attractiveness to men.     

Nested Kriging predictions for datasets with a large number of observations

This work falls within the context of predicting the value of a real function at some input locations given a limited number of observations of this function. The Kriging interpolation technique (or Gaussian process regression) is often considered to tackle such a problem, but the method suffers from its computational burden when the number of observation points is large. We introduce in this article nested Kriging predictors which are constructed by aggregating sub-models based on subsets of observation points. This approach is proven to have better theoretical properties than other aggregation methods that can be found in the literature. Contrarily to some other methods it can be shown that the proposed aggregation method is consistent. Finally, the practical interest of the proposed method is illustrated on simulated datasets and on an industrial test case with \(10^4\) observations in a 6-dimensional space.     

Fear of Ruin

This paper offers interpretations and applications of the “fear of ruin” coefficient (Aumann and Kurz, 1977, Econometrica). This coefficient is useful for analyzing the behavior of expected utility maximizers when they face binary lotteries with the same worse outcome. Comparative statics results of “more fear of ruin” are derived. The partial ordering induced by the fear of ruin coefficient is shown to be weaker than that induced by the Arrow-Pratt coefficient. JEL Classification: D81     

Wheelchair coasting downhill is a reliable work task

OBJECTIVE: To measure test-retest reliability of physiological responses during submaximal wheelchair downhill and horizontal treadmill ergometry. DESIGN: A test-retest design was used on a convenience sample. Four male and three female non-wheelchair users, (22-43 years of age) propelled or coasted in a wheelchair under steady-state conditions. Four minute work bouts were performed at 1, 2, 3, and 4 km/hr. (0.62, 1.24, 1.86 and 2.5 mph, respectively) at 0 degrees, -2 degrees, and -4 degrees. Subjects were studied twice under each of the 12 conditions. Six tests were performed daily, with testing occurring over four days. Dependent variables included oxygen consumption, minute ventilation and heart. Intraclass correlation coefficients were determined for each set of paired tests. RESULTS: Intraclass correlation coefficients were high for absolute VO_{2}(R=0.84-0.99), V_{E} (R=0.86-0.98) and HR (R=0.95-1.0) over the range of 4 speeds and 3 inclinations studied. On average, % differences from test 1 to test 2 were less than 3%. CONCLUSION: At the treadmill speeds and inclinations (positive and negative) studied in this investigation, untrained wheelchair users responded in a physiologically reliable manner.     

Nontariff Barriers and Trade Liberalization

This article shows that governments have no incentive to introduce nontariff barriers (NTBs) when they are free to set tariffs but they do when tariffs are determined cooperatively. Quotas are preferred to antidumping restrictions so that the model is consistent with a progression from using tariffs only to quotas and then to antidumping constraints (when quotas are eliminated). There is a corresponding narrowing of the range of industries affected by trade restrictions. Simulating the model, the degree of tariff liberalization and of replacement of tariffs by NTBs are shown to depend on industry characteristics in line with stylized facts.     

Is India better off today than 15 years ago? A robust multidimensional answer

This paper provides a robust multidimensional normative evaluation of the growth episode that India has experienced in the last 15 years. Specifically, the paper compares the evolution, between 1987, 1995 and 2002, of the distribution of several individual attributes on the basis of ethically robust dominance criteria. The individual attributes considered are real consumption (measured at the individual level), literacy rate, under 5 mortality and violent crime rates (all measured at the district levels). District level variables are interpreted as (local) public goods which, along with consumption, contribute to individual well-being. The robust criteria used are generalizations, to more than two attributes, of the first and second order dominance criteria of Atkinson and Bourguignon (Rev Econ Stud 49:183–201, 1982) and coincide with the unanimity of utilitarian value judgements taken over a specific class of individual utility functions. The main result of the empirical analysis is that all utilitarian rankings of distributions of the four attributes that assume that individual utility functions satisfy the assumptions of second order dominance agree that India is better off in 2002 than in 1987 or 1995 but that these rankings disagree as to how to rank 1987 and 1995. Furthermore, if one removes crime from the list of attributes, the dominance is shown to apply steadily over the whole period.     

Strategic, sincere, and heuristic voting under four election rules: an experimental study

We report on laboratory experiments on voting. In a setting where subjects have single-peaked preferences, we find that the rational choice theory provides very good predictions of actual individual behavior in one-round and approval voting elections but fares poorly in explaining vote choice under two-round elections. We conclude that voters behave strategically as far as strategic computations are not too demanding, in which case they rely on simple heuristics (under two-round voting) or they just vote sincerely (under single transferable vote).