Best Nonparametric Bounds on Demand Responses

This paper uses revealed preference inequalities to provide the tightest possible (best) nonparametric bounds on predicted consumer responses to price changes using consumer‐level data over a finite set of relative price changes. These responses are allowed to vary nonparametrically across the income distribution. This is achieved by combining the theory of revealed preference with the semiparametric estimation of consumer expansion paths (Engel curves). We label these expansion path based bounds on demand responses as E‐bounds. Deviations from revealed preference restrictions are measured by preference perturbations which are shown to usefully characterize taste change and to provide a stochastic environment within which violations of revealed preference inequalities can be assessed.     

Dopamine and risk choices in different domains: Findings among serious tournament bridge players

We explore how risk-taking in the card game contract bridge, and in a financial gamble, correlate with variation in the dopamine receptor D4 gene (DRD4) among serious tournament bridge players. In bridge risk-taking, we find significant interactions between genetic predisposition and skill. Among men with the 7-repeat allele of DRD4, namely 7R + men, those with more bridge skill take more good risks and fewer bad risks, while the opposite is found for less-expert 7R + men. Conversely, skill does not predict risk-taking among men without the 7R + allele. Consistent with some prior studies, we also find that 7R + men take more risk in the financial gamble. We find no relationship between 7R + and either risk measure among our female subjects. Our results suggest that the dopamine system plays an important role in individual differences in risk-taking among men, and is the first to distinguish between advantageous and disadvantageous risk-taking.     

The disgust-promotes-disposal effect

Individuals tend toward status quo bias: preferring existing options over new ones. There is a countervailing phenomenon: Humans naturally dispose of objects that disgust them, such as foul-smelling food. But what if the source of disgust is independent of the object? We induced disgust via a film clip to see if participants would trade away an item (a box of unidentified office supplies) for a new item (alternative unidentified box). Such “incidental disgust” strongly countered status quo bias. Disgusted people exchanged their present possession 51% of the time compared to 32% for people in a neutral state. Thus, disgust promotes disposal. A second experiment tested whether a warning about this tendency would diminish it. It did not. These results indicate a robust disgust-promotes-disposal effect. Because these studies presented real choices with tangible rewards, their findings have implications for everyday choices and raise caution about the effectiveness of warnings about biases.     

Infusing research integrity principles and practices into a regional master's degree-intensive university: a case study

The need for institutions of higher education to advance research and scholarly integrity across graduate degree programs involves a strong commitment from each institution to develop a comprehensive approach for promoting responsible conduct of research (RCR). In response to this need, one master's-intensive regional university implemented a three-tier model project (focusing, developing, and evaluating/sustaining) for infusing research integrity principles and practices while promoting RCR. Components of the model and implementation strategies are presented as a case study analysis. Implications of the model for promoting the RCR are projected relative to graduate programs focused on applied research.     

The vanishing physician scientist: a critical review and analysis

Review of the concept of "the vanishing physician-scientist" shows: 1) medical school admissions reject most students wanting medical research careers; 2) college years before medical school are the best time for students to begin research; 3) efforts to entice admitted medical students and residents to do research are too little too late, yielding people not equipped to compete for grants with PhD track peers and less motivated because they have clinical careers to fall back on; 4) the MD/PhD could be replaced by the PhD/MD with uninterrupted research: a full PhD in parallel with part-time medical school followed by part-time residencies. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Accountability in Research to view the free supplemental file.     

Responses to affirmative action: Is there a question order affect?

This paper analyzes the affect of question order on support for affirmative action. While the literature is replete with studies detailing the racial differences for support for affirmative action, there is a dearth of studies that analyze how probing, using open-ended questions, can influence individuals’ responses. Given this, we seek to analyze and explain how open-ended questions, related to affirmative action, might affect responses to close-ended questions as well as how their joint interaction help us to understand resonant attitudes. Using a split-ballot approach, we found that responses to the closedended question were significantly affected by the experimental design.     

A Bayesian analysis for the Wilcoxon signed-rank statistic

A Bayesian analysis is provided for the Wilcoxon signed-rank statistic (T⁺). The Bayesian analysis is based on a sign-bias parameter φ on the (0, 1) interval. For the case of a uniform prior probability distribution for φ and for small sample sizes (i.e., 6 ? n ? 25), values for the statistic T⁺ are computed that enable probabilistic statements about φ. For larger sample sizes, approximations are provided for the asymptotic likelihood function P(T⁺|φ) as well as for the posterior distribution P(φ|T⁺). Power analyses are examined both for properly specified Gaussian sampling and for misspecified non Gaussian models. The new Bayesian metric has high power efficiency in the range of 0.9–1 relative to a standard t test when there is Gaussian sampling. But if the sampling is from an unknown and misspecified distribution, then the new statistic still has high power; in some cases, the power can be higher than the t test (especially for probability mixtures and heavy-tailed distributions). The new Bayesian analysis is thus a useful and robust method for applications where the usual parametric assumptions are questionable. These properties further enable a way to do a generic Bayesian analysis for many non Gaussian distributions that currently lack a formal Bayesian model.     

A conceptual approach to the creation of public–private partnerships in social welfare

All societies are confronted with complex, often difficult to overcome, challenges associated with changing population demographics. These challenges have placed increasing demands on society for social protection. Individual citizens, politicians, and scholars alike all are searching for the ideal configuration of the welfare mix, that is, a combination of various institutions that can offer the best possible combination of essential goods and services for everyone in every society. Key Practitioner Message: ● The organization of the public–private welfare partnership as viewed from a conceptual perspective; ● The unique contextual and contemporary social forces that shape public–private partnerships in modern welfare state practice; ● Contrasts in the origins and nature of public–private partnerships between two of the world's most populous countries whose histories, traditions, values, and norms differ fundamentally from one another. Even so, considerable learning regarding welfare state formation in different societies is possible through the application of the Public–Private Development Mix to the analysis of welfare state formation in these two contrasting societies.     

Methods to Distinguish Between Polynomial and Exponential Tails

Two methods to distinguish between polynomial and exponential tails are introduced. The methods are based on the properties of the residual coefficient of variation for the exponential and non‐exponential distributions. A graphical method, called a CV‐plot, shows departures from exponentiality in the tails. The plot is applied to the daily log‐returns of exchange rates of US dollar and Japanese yen. New statistics are introduced for testing the exponentiality of tails using multiple thresholds. They give better control of the significance level than previous tests. The powers of the new tests are compared with those of some others for various sample sizes.