Psychosocial Factors Associated with Male Sexual Difficulties

The role of medical conditions, childhood experiences, and psychological and relationship factors in the development and maintenance of male sexual difficulties is not well understood. Using self-report questionnaires, the current study examined how these factors are associated with male sexual difficulties overall, as well as for each of four separate problems (low sexual desire, erectile difficulties, premature ejaculation, delayed ejaculation). The participants for the study were 331 Australian men from the general population, all of whom were in cohabiting heterosexual relationships and had experienced one or more of the aforementioned sexual problems. Data were collected via an online survey between January 2010 and April 2011. The results demonstrated that medical factors as well as current psychological factors (e.g., performance anxiety) were most likely associated with each male sexual difficulty. These findings are in contrast to those obtained with women, where relationship factors are strongly related to female sexual problems. They would suggest that the targets for sex therapy may be different for men and women, with medical problems and performance anxiety being the primary targets for men.     

Efficiency of financial market intermediation in Kenya: A comparative analysis

Wide interest margins as witnessed in Kenya are a sign of a repressed and inefficient financial sector. This paper carries out a cross-country analysis of the determinants of financial market efficiency using panel cointegration with a view to recommending policy options for improving the efficiency of the financial sector intermediation process in Kenya. The study finds that the major contributors to the differences in financial sector inefficiency in Kenya compared to the other countries in the study are high bank operating costs, default risk and financial market structure. The study recommends, among other measures, that the government through the Central Bank need to collaborate with the commercial banks and establish a working credit reference bureau to enable easy identification of credit worthy customers in order to reduce default risk; there is also need by the central bank to license more new banks to increase competition and reduce bank concentration. The study also recommends increased use of technology including phone-banking and e-banking to reduce operation costs of the banks. The paper concludes that contrary to the findings from other cross-country analysis, the factors that lead to financial market in/efficiency varies from one country to the other.     

The Effect of School Choice on Participants: Evidence from Randomized Lotteries

School choice has become an increasingly prominent strategy for enhancing academic achievement. To evaluate the impact on participants, we exploit randomized lotteries that determine high school admission in the Chicago Public Schools. Compared to those students who lose lotteries, students who win attend high schools that are better in a number of dimensions, including peer achievement and attainment levels. Nonetheless, we find little evidence that winning a lottery provides any systematic benefit across a wide variety of traditional academic measures. Lottery winners do, however, experience improvements on a subset of nontraditional outcome measures, such as self‐reported disciplinary incidents and arrest rates.     

Event Exchangeability: Probabilistic Sophistication Without Continuity or Monotonicity

Building on the Ramsey–de Finetti idea of event exchangeability, we derive a characterization of probabilistic sophistication without requiring any of the various versions of monotonicity, continuity, or comparative likelihood assumptions imposed by Savage (1954), Machina and Schmeidler (1992), and Grant (1995). Our characterization identifies a unique and finitely‐additive subjective probability measure over an algebra of events.     

From local control to remote control: an excavation of international mobility constraints

Theory and Society - Before the passage of the US Immigration Act of 1924, governments of migrant-receiving countries decided whether to admit...     

ADDRESSING SOCIAL DILEMMAS WITH MASCOTS,INFORMATION, AND GRAPHICS

Reducing nonpoint source pollution is a complex social dilemma involving externalities, information asymmetries, and coordination problems. Using a laboratory experiment, this research investigates how mascots, public information, and data visualization can improve collective group behavior to address a social dilemma. Results show that groups reduce pollution in the experiment when a community mascot expresses negative emotions in response to poor water quality outcomes. Additionally, groups pollute less when they are provided public information about water quality, and abatement is greater when feedback is negatively framed. This study demonstrates how novel nonmonetary incentives can be used to achieve a collective environmental goal. (JEL D79, Q25, Q52, Q53, D83)     

Pricing risk in prostitution: Evidence from online sex ads

Journal of Risk and Uncertainty - The movement of many human interactions to the internet has led to massive volumes of text that contain high-value information about individual choices pertaining...     

Systematically collected information at encounters with HIV-positive students: A review of 10 years of electronic medical records

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine clinical and epidemiological information collected by Student Health Center (SHC) providers on HIV-positive students, and benchmark this information against Infectious Disease Society of America guidelines. Participants: Students who utilized the SHC and had an ICD-9 code indicating positive HIV status between 2005 and 2015 (3?=?7). Methods: In June 2016, we accessed the free-form provider notes of the SHC’s electronic medical records to identify specific, recorded epidemiological and clinical information. Results: Seven unique students sought care at the SHC during the study period. Current sexual risk taking and other known behavioral risk factors were absent from all records, along with CD4 count and viral load. ART status was only available for one patient, and he was not on ART. The information collected failed to meet IDSA benchmarks. Conclusion: Clinically- and epidemiologically-relevant information is not systematically collected from HIV-positive students at SHCs.     

The Development and Validation of the FACES-IV-SF

The Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale IV (FACES-IV) was developed to capture the balanced and unbalanced levels of cohesion and flexibility in families. Although this measure has been shown to be valid and reliable, its length at 62 items limits utility and uptake in clinical and research settings. This paper details the development of a shorter form of the FACES-IV (the FACES-IV Short Form) using two studies. In the first study, three item-level analyses were used to identify 24 items that provided the best measurement of each of the scales of the FACES-IV. In the second study, the reliability, and convergent and divergent validity of the short form was tested. Results suggest that the FACES-IV-SF is a valid and reliable measure that adheres to the theory underlying the original FACES-IV but may be better utilized in clinical and research settings due to its brevity.