The impact of face masks on infants' learning of faces: An eye tracking study

This preregistered study examined how face masks influenced face memory in a North American sample of 6- to 9-month-old infants (N = 58) born during the COVID-19 pandemic. Infants' memory was tested using a standard visual paired comparison (VPC) task. We crossed whether or not the faces were masked during familiarization and test, yielding four trial types (masked-familiarization/masked-test, unmasked-familiarization/masked-test, masked-familiarization/unmasked-test, and unmasked-familiarization/unmasked-test). Infants showed memory for the faces if the faces were unmasked at test, regardless of whether or not the face was masked during familiarization. However, infants did not show robust evidence of memory when test faces were masked, regardless of the familiarization condition. In addition, infants' bias for looking at the upper (eye) region was greater for masked than unmasked faces, although this difference was unrelated to memory performance. In summary, although the presence of face masks does appear to influence infants' processing of and memory for faces, they can form memories of masked faces and recognize those familiar faces even when unmasked.     

School Choice in London and Paris – A Comparison of Middle‐class Strategies

Education is one major public service in which quasi‐markets and other choice‐based mechanisms are now established methods of delivery. The types of school people choose, and the extent to which their choices are realized, have a fundamental impact on the outcomes of any mechanism of school choice. In this article, we provide a comparative analysis of the school choice strategies of middle‐class families in London and Paris. We draw on approximately 200 in‐depth interviews carried out across the two cities. This enables us to investigate the extent to which middle‐class school choice strategies transcend the institutional context provided by both the local (state and private) schools market and national education policy in England and France. We discuss these findings in the context of current school choice policy and consider their implications for future policy design.     

Does the availability of child care influence the employment of mothers? Findings from western Germany

There is a vast empirical literature investigating the effects of child care costson female employment. Day-care costs are usually treated as a reduction infemale wages and are supposed to reduce a woman's propensity to participatein the labor market. In this paper we argue that an analysis of the effects ofchild care on the employment of mothers in Germany should focus on theavailability rather than the affordability of care, due to peculiarities of theGerman day-care regime. Our empirical findings cast doubt on the effectivenessof the current German day-care regime. Specifically, we question the extent towhich it enables mothers to participate in the labor market.     

Jump-diffusion models of German stock returns

This paper discusses the statistical properties of jump-diffusion processes and reports on parameter estimates for the DAX stock index and 48 German stocks with traded options. It is found that a Poisson-type jump-diffusion process can explain the high levels of kurtosis and skewness of observed return distributions of German stocks. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the return dynamics of the DAX include a statistically significant jump component except for a few sample subperiods. This finding is seen to be inconsistent with asset pricing models assuming that the jump component of the stock's return is unsystematic and diversifiable in the market portfolio.     

Children's and Adolescents' Decisions about Sharing Money with Others

Two hundred and ninety-four participants aged between 7 and 17 years of age were asked to share out money between themselves and another, imaginary group. Individual responses were recorded as well as responses after discussion in a group with two other participants. The distribution task took place in two different experimental conditions that either gave participants a free choice about how much to offer to the other group or involved making a strategic offer to avoid the other group rejecting an offer and losing all the money. From 10 years of age onwards, when allowed to choose freely how much to share, boys made progressively less generous offers than girls whereas girls' offers remained the same with age. However, when inter-group strategic constraints were present, there were few gender differences from 10 years of age. The order in which games were presented was a powerful influence on the offers that participants made.     

An introduction to My Environmental Education Evaluation Resource Assistant (MEERA), a web-based resource for self-directed learning about environmental education program evaluation

My Environmental Education Evaluation Resource Assistant or “MEERA” is a web-site designed to support environmental educators’ program evaluation activities. MEERA has several characteristics that set it apart from other self-directed learning evaluation resources. Readers are encouraged to explore the site and to reflect on the role that self-directed learning resources can play in program evaluation and how those resources could be better designed.     

Comparison of conflict of interest policies and reported practices in academic medical centers in the United States

The authors reviewed the conflict of interest policies of 9 academic medical centers in the United States and interviewed members of the Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) and Conflict of Interest Committees (COICs) at those institutions. They found that many institutions used processes for reporting and managing conflicts of interest that were more decentralized than the processes described in their policies. Also, most institutions had no clear and comprehensive policy to guide investigators regarding disclosure of conflicts of interest to potential research participants. Considerable differences in understanding of conflict of interest policies were observed between IRB and COIC officials.     

Besteuerung multinationaler Unternehmen in der EU – eine vergleichende Analyse ausgewählter Reformvorschläge

The European Commission is currently finalizing a tax system based on a Common Consolidated Tax Base (CCCTB), which multinational corporations throughout the European Union will be able to use to determine their tax burden in accordance to this system. Besides the CCCTB, we present and analyze an alternative tax reform proposal, the European Tax Allocation System (ETAS). Our analysis is based on a dynamic capital budgeting model. The effects of the underlying European tax concepts on marginal investment of multinational groups are investigated by determining the influence of taxation on the required minimum rate of return and herewith the pre-tax cost of capital. Performing analyses for different scenarios enables us to draw more detailed conclusions about whether implementing ETAS and CCCTB can foster or discriminate real investments. Our investigation shows which tax concept and which of the analyzed parameter particularly affects the multinational’s tax burden. E.g., we find that a CCCTB can foster real investments particularly by means of retention policy and profit shifting, whereas ETAS can foster real investments effectively exploiting the Member States’ tax rate differentials and taking advantage of differing national tax regulations.