PROVIDING GLOBAL PUBLIC GOODS: ELECTORAL DELEGATION AND COOPERATION

This study experimentally examines the effect of electoral delegation on providing global public goods shared by several groups. Each group elects one delegate who can freely decide on each group member's contribution to the global public goods. Our results show that people mostly vote for delegates who assign equal contributions for every group member. However, in contrast to standard theoretical predictions for our delegation mechanism, unequal contributions across groups drive cooperation down over time, and it decreases efficiency by almost 50% compared to the selfish benchmark. This pattern is not driven by delegates trying to exploit their fellow group members, as indicated by theory. It is driven by conditional cooperation of delegates across groups. Since one of the potential sources of the resulting inefficiency is the polycentric nature of global public goods provision together with other‐regarding preferences, we use the term P‐inefficiency to describe our finding. (JEL C92, D72, H41)     

Older Drivers Retiring From the Road: An Application of the Selection,Optimization, and Compensation Model

Purpose: This study uses the selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) model to compare older adults who have given up driving, those who still drive, and those who drive less to identify differences in the three groups. Design and Methods: This cross-sectional study of 281 older adults is part of the Naturally Occurring Retirement Community Demonstration Project. Study participants completed interviews that included questions on demographics, health and functioning, mental health, social support, and current levels of engagement in activities including current driving status. Results: Data suggest that driving retirement is a process and that a substantial number of people are in the transitional stage, where they are less functional than those who still drive and more similar to those who have retired from the road. Implications: Given the similarity of those who drive less to those who have given up driving, front-line professionals and policy makers must work together to ease the transition to driving retirement for those without adequate ability to effectively compensate for their inability to continue to drive safely.     

Optimal control strategies for dividend payments and capital injections in compound Markov binomial risk model with penalties for deficits

We consider the compound Markov binomial risk model. The company controls the amount of dividends paid to the shareholders as well as the capital injections in order to maximize the cumulative expected discounted dividends minus the discounted capital injections and the discounted penalties for deficits prior to ruin. We show that the optimal value function is the unique solution of an HJB equation, and the optimal control strategy is a two-barriers strategy given the current state of the Markov chain. We obtain some properties of the optimal strategy and the optimal condition for ruining the company. We offer a high-efficiency algorithm for obtaining the optimal strategy and the optimal value function. In addition, we also discuss the optimal control problem under a restriction of bounded dividend rates. Numerical results are provided to illustrate the algorithm and the impact of the penalties.     

Three Gorges Project: Effects of Resettlement on the Environment in the Reservoir Area and Countermeasures

Environmental problems resulting from human displacement and resettlement are considered to be secondary impacts of hydro projects. There is a significant gap in knowledge concerning the environmental consequences of resettlement of the Three Gorges project (TGP), China. This study examines critical environmental problems associated with the TGP resettlement. It reveals that the contradiction between the land inundation and demand for land in resettling rural residents is a critical environmental issue. On the positive side, countermeasures that are discussed include: engineering works for farmland protection, developing eco-agriculture, reforestation and constructing a green belt in the peripheral zone of the reservoir, and adjustments to resettlement policy.     

The importance of spirituality among gay and lesbian individuals

Religion is a conduit for expressing spirituality. Since most mainstream religions condemn any form of homosexuality one would expect that gay men and lesbians would have little to do with spirituality. Experts, however, believe that gay and lesbian individuals would especially benefit from spiritual nourishment because of the oppression they face. Using an instrument that measures spiritual well-being, this study investigated the spirituality of 93 gay and lesbian individuals. The findings revealed that respondents espoused high levels of spiritual well-being: how one relates to God (religious well-being) and how one feels about life (existential well-being). Those who identified with a formal religion and who attended religious services frequently espoused higher religious well-being. Respondents with a diagnosis of depression, on the other hand, espoused lower existential well-being. Multiple regression analyses revealed that existential well-being was a significant predictor of adjustment: having high self-esteem, accepting one's homosexual orientation, and feeling less alienated. In contrast, religious well-being was not a significant predictor of any measure of adjustment. These findings point to the importance of the existential aspect of spirituality among gay and lesbian individuals in determining adjustment. They also suggest that being well-adjusted does not entail being reconciled with a traditional religion or with a theistic belief.     

硝基漆稀释剂的研制

以酯、酮、醇和苯类为原料．经过调整配方，研制了一种颜色浅（小于１号）、酸价小、胶凝数大于１、白化性能好、质量符合ＨＧ２—６６０－７４Ｘ＝１标准要求的硝基漆稀释剂．     

试论公共管理伦理学的产生逻辑——兼评张康之教授的《公共管理伦理学》

伦理关系是一种普遍的社会关系。伦理学的发展与分化见证了一门门应用伦理学、职业伦理学的诞生。这为作为一门应用伦理学的公共管理伦理学的产生提供了趋势上的必然要求。在公共管理这一新的、服务定位的社会治理模式下,以服务精神为核心的伦理精神贯穿必然其中。这为公共管理伦理学的产生提供了现实基础。这两个方面的结合构成了公共管理伦理学的产生逻辑。     

Online coupon consumption problem

Nowadays, it is popular that the dealer makes profits by selling a kind of discount coupons, which can be used as money to purchase commodities with total cost less than or equal to the face value of the coupon. We can purchase a coupon at a price of 0<s≤1 times its face value and the number of potential purchasable coupons is a given integer l. The customer has the option to buy the goods by cash completely or by a discount coupon. However, each piece of goods can only use one coupon and the coupon used must have enough balance for the goods. The objective is to minimize the total cost for purchasing all the goods. In this paper, we reduce the problem to a special bin packing model. We consider the online problems for all 0<s≤1 and 1≤l≤∞. We present optimal online algorithms for all 0<s≤1 when l=∞ and l=1. For 2≤l<∞, we give both a lower bound and an algorithm, and show the algorithm is optimal for l=2. A preliminary version of this paper appeared in the proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Combinatorics, Algorithms, Probabilistic and Experimental Methodologies, Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Y. Jiang supported by Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (Y605316). Z. Tan supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (10671177, 60021201).