Subjective Well-Being: The Constructionist Point of View. A Longitudinal Study to Verify The Predictive Power of Top-Down Effects and Bottom-Up Processes

Based on the constructionist point of view applied to Subjective Well-Being (SWB), five hypotheses were advanced about the predictive power of the top-down effects and bottom-up processes over a five years period. The sample consisted of 297 respondents, which represent the Italian sample of a European longitudinal survey; the first phase was conducted in 1995 and the follow-up in 2000. Satisfaction judgments were collected on Overall Life Satisfaction (OLS) and on seven Life Facet Satisfaction (LFS) domains. The top-down effects were measured using a method derived from the constructionist point of view. Life conditions, which represent the bottom-up processes, were gathered by structured questionnaire and were optimized by a factor analyses. A stepwise regression was performed in each satisfaction judgment to test the five hypotheses, which were confirmedwith only few exceptions. The results revealed that the top-down effects were a significant predictor in all satisfaction judgments, especially in OLS, where it was the strongest predictor. Life conditions (bottom-up factors) were less strong predictors than the top-down effects, but they became strong predictors if they were gathered at the same time as satisfaction judgments.     

On the cardinal utility equivalence of biseparable preferences

We establish a simple condition, based on the willingness to bet on events, under which two biseparable preferences have cardinally equivalent utilities

     

The impact of tax-financed pensions on poverty reduction in Latin America: Evidence from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay

In many Latin American countries, tax-financed pensions (TFPs) have expanded, mainly resulting from growing informalization of employment and stagnating or declining pension insurance coverage. In the five countries examined in this article, TFPs have generally been effective in reducing poverty and indigence. In Brazil rural social assistance pensions cut the incidence of destitution among poor older people by 95 per cent. In Chile TFPs considerably improved their poverty reduction effectiveness between 1990 and 2000. Tax-financed pensions have therefore been seen as an instrument to supplement contributory pension coverage and boost overall social security coverage. A key challenge is to increase pension insurance coverage through existing statutory pension insurance or special contributory schemes targeted on workers in the informal economy. Otherwise, TFPs could become financially and socially unsustainable in the future. There are also various ways to improve the financing, administration and eligibility criteria of TFPs, particularly because it is necessary to define consistent structure and benefit policies between these and contributory schemes.     

From reform to crisis: Argentina's pension system

Argentina underwent economic and social collapse in December 2001. The crisis brought the worst socioeconomic indicators in its history, and the pension system was not immune from this disaster, which was unparalleled in any middle-income developing country. In 1994 the pension system had been restructured, and was regarded as a viable model for other reforms elsewhere. This article discusses in general terms the features of the current pension scheme, the structural problems that were not resolved in the reform of 1994, the relation between that reform and the government's financial crisis, and the impact of the economic collapse on the pension system. Finally, it discusses some aspects of the challenges faced in building a system that is financially viable and has the potential to close the major gaps in coverage affecting both the working population and older persons.     

Bayesian Analysis of DSGE Models by S. An and F. Schorfheide

The paper that An and Schorfheide have written is an excellent piece of work and will become a useful reference for teaching and consultation purposes. The paper discusses in an articulate and convincing manner almost everything that one could think of covering in such a review. This makes the task of the commentator difficult. Nevertheless, I will attempt to add few insights on three issues which, in my opinion, play an important role in applied work and in the interpretation of the estimation result. In particular, I will discuss a) the sensitivity of posterior distributions to prior spreads; b) the effects of model misspecification and an approach to model respecification; c) parameter identification and its consequences for posterior inference.     

Regression analysis with partially labelled regressors: carbon dating of the Shroud of Turin

The twelve results from the 1988 radio carbon dating of the Shroud of Turin show surprising heterogeneity. We try to explain this lack of homogeneity by regression on spatial coordinates. However, although the locations of the samples sent to the three laboratories involved are known, the locations of the 12 subsamples within these samples are not. We consider all 387,072 plausible spatial allocations and analyse the resulting distributions of statistics. Plots of robust regression residuals from the forward search indicate that some sets of allocations are implausible. We establish the existence of a trend in the results and suggest how better experimental design would have enabled stronger conclusions to have been drawn from this multi-centre experiment.     

Art dealers as competitors and community builders: Understanding the overlapping social logics of the contemporary art world

Art dealers are often described as gatekeepers who are focused on their own position as well as the status of their artists and collectors. We argue that this is an incomplete account of art dealing. The goal of this article is to explain how art dealing is a “toolkit” that does not exclusively focus on status building and social capital, but also includes behavior associated with accessing the visual arts field and community development. First, art dealers often have a background that has strong social ties to art, which provides them with intimate knowledge of the art world and social connections with artists, collectors, and other art world actors. For that reason, entry into art dealing reflects intimate knowledge of art practices, what we call “proximate connoisseurship.” Second, art dealerships reflect both competitive and communal factors. Art dealers may choose to work with artists based on their ability to generate income, social capital, and prestige (“competitive logic”), but art dealers may also employ a “communal logic” focused on friendships and creating community. This theory of art dealers is illustrated with excerpts from interviews with 34 dealers randomly selected from the rosters of international art fairs such as Art Basel Miami, EXPO Chicago, Aqua, and the New Art Dealers Alliance show.     

A Subjective Spin on Roulette Wheels

We provide a simple behavioral definition of ‘subjective mixture’ of acts for a large class of (not necessarily expected‐utility) preferences. Subjective mixtures enjoy the same algebraic properties as the ‘objective mixtures’ used to great advantage in the decision setting introduced by Anscombe and Aumann (1963). This makes it possible to formulate mixture‐space axioms in a fully subjective setting. For illustration, we present simple subjective axiomatizations of some models of choice under uncertainty, including Bewley's model of choice with incomplete preferences (2002).