COMMUNICATION AND COORDINATION IN A TWO‐STAGE GAME

We study the impact of communication on behavior in a two‐stage coordination game with asymmetric payoffs. We test experimentally whether individuals can avoid a head‐to‐head confrontation by means of coordinated strategies. In particular we analyze whether and how quickly a conflict‐avoidance take turn strategy can emerge. First, our results show that players learn to solve the conflict by choosing opposite options at both stages of the game. Second, many adopt a take turn strategy to sustain coordination over time and alleviate the inequality induced by the asymmetry of payoffs. Third, communication increases the likelihood of conflict resolution regardless of whether communication is unilateral or bilateral. (JEL C91, D74, L15, H71)     

Targeting Disaster Aid in Post‐Tsunami Sri Lanka

In this article we examine the allocation of boats and houses, the two major types of aid made available to tsunami‐affected fishery households in Sri Lanka. We investigate the effectiveness of targeting by looking at the distributional impacts and the determinants of allocation of these transfers at the household level. We find that houses were much better targeted than boats in terms of compensating for the losses due to the tsunami. We also find that the ex post distribution of boats is much more unequal than the distribution that prevailed before the tsunami. The reverse is true for the distribution of houses, for which the government took a much more active role.     

Fisheries Trade and Social Development in the Philippine‐Malaysia Maritime Border Zone

Weakly regulated natural‐resource trading activities in the remote borderlands of developing countries are commonly viewed both as a means of improving economic development and as a way of smuggling valuable natural resources. Based on data from the Philippine‐Malaysia maritime border that focus on the trade in high‐value live reef fish, this article points to the need to situate such cross‐border activities more closely within the context of local perspectives and priorities. A locally‐grounded perspective is necessary in order to understand the context of social‐development challenges that mediate both macroeconomic and environmental policy outcomes.     

Performance et relations de conseil: comment la structure relationnelle de l’élite des chercheurs français en cancérologie a conditionné leur progression entre 1999–2001 et 1996–1998

This article shows that performances of a specific subpopulation of French researchers in cancer research depend on their advice network. They make progress if they maximize access to scarce resources and their connection to other groups in certain cases. The absence of status competition within the group of peers is an advantage as well as a sufficient relational opening beyond the group with a majority of “dependent” researchers. By taking into account a shape of “glass ceiling” and a specific case of hematologists, the researchers who have the right structural qualities are 11 times more likely to make progress in terms of performance.     

Sense of Community and the Perception of the Socio-Physical Environment: A Comparison Between Urban Centers of Different Sizes Across Europe

Measures of subjective well-being, and especially life evaluations, or judgments about how happy people are with their lives as a whole, enrich and empower social indicators research. They do this by requiring other social indicators as explanatory variables and providing a coherent encompassing framework within which the relative importance of other social indicators can be established.     

Examining the efficacy of an mHealth media literacy education program for sexual health promotion in older adolescents attending community college

Objective: To determine the feasibility of a mobile health (mHealth), media literacy education program, Media Aware, for improving sexual health outcomes in older adolescent community college students. Participants: 184 community college students (ages 18–19) participated in the study from April–December 2015. Methods: Eight community college campuses were randomly assigned to either the intervention or a wait-list control group. Student participants from each campus completed web-based pretest and posttest questionnaires. Intervention group students received Media Aware in between questionnaires. Results: Several intervention effects of the Media Aware program were significant, including reducing older adolescents' self-reported risky sexual behaviors; positively affecting knowledge, attitudes, normative beliefs, and intentions related to sexual health; and increasing media skepticism. Some gender differences in the findings were revealed. Conclusions: The results from this study suggest that Media Aware is a promising means of delivering comprehensive sexual health education to older adolescents attending community college.     

Exploring gender and elder abuse from the perspective of professionals

We conducted an online survey of professionals working in two Canadian provinces to learn about their knowledge of elder abuse from a gender-based perspective. A total of 169 professionals (90% women) completed a survey in either French or English. Five topic areas emerged from the analysis: the influence of gender on the risk of abuse; types of abuse detected; knowledge gaps; capacity to respond to gender-based abuse; and awareness of resources. To gain further insight into these results, we conducted three focus groups with a total of 24 professionals. Professionals held relatively little recognition of, or knowledge about, gender related to elder abuse. Our results indicate the need to develop educational and awareness raising opportunities for professionals who work with abused older adults in both French and English to identify and respond to the unique needs of older women and men.     

Revisiting the transitional dynamics of business cycle phases with mixed-frequency data

This paper introduces a Markov-switching model in which transition probabilities depend on higher frequency indicators and their lags through polynomial weighting schemes. The MSV-MIDAS model is estimated through maximum likelihood (ML) methods with a slightly modified version of Hamilton’s filter. Monte Carlo simulations show that ML provides accurate estimates, but they suggest some caution in interpreting the tests of the parameters in the transition probabilities. We apply this new model to forecast business cycle turning points in the United States. We properly detect recessions by exploiting the link between GDP growth and higher frequency variables from financial and energy markets.