Level‐k Auctions: Can a Nonequilibrium Model of Strategic Thinking Explain the Winner's Curse and Overbidding in Private‐Value Auctions?

This paper proposes a structural nonequilibrium model of initial responses to incomplete‐information games based on “level‐k” thinking, which describes behavior in many experiments with complete‐information games. We derive the model's implications in first‐ and second‐price auctions with general information structures, compare them to equilibrium and Eyster and Rabin's (2005) “cursed equilibrium,” and evaluate the model's potential to explain nonequilibrium bidding in auction experiments. The level‐k model generalizes many insights from equilibrium auction theory. It allows a unified explanation of the winner's curse in common‐value auctions and overbidding in those independent‐private‐value auctions without the uniform value distributions used in most experiments.     

Mental health and the media: From illness to wellbeing

The media are a main source of information about mental health for many people, and an ever‐growing body of literature is evaluating their coverage of the topic. To help keep track of such research, several comprehensive but now dated literature reviews have been published. We assess more recent studies (2007–2017) and suggest future directions by integrating (a) the “circuit of mass communication” model from media and communication studies which posits that production, content, and reception need to be analysed for an in‐depth understanding of the media, (b) the holistic view of mental health as comprising both illness and wellbeing, and (3) the critical psychiatry literature questioning the assumptions underlying psychiatric knowledge and practice. We find that recent studies have focused on content and “the illness side” of mental health by examining the representation of particular mental disorders and events involving individuals with specific diagnoses. We identify as a promising development the growing interest in “the wellbeing side” of mental health whereby authors have started to analyse recovery messages. We invite more production and reception research and more critical content studies which use diagnostic labels cautiously and analyse the representation of people with mental health problems as the victims of violence.     

Do we measure leadership effectively? Articulating and evaluating scale development psychometrics for best practice

Leadership assessment has been a particular point of difficulty for contemporary scholarship, with many practitioners rejecting academically-driven leadership instruments and scales and preferring their own, less rigorous, scales. We believe that current conceptualizations and measurements of leadership are problematic, indicated by contemporary challenges that can be widely understood as failures of leadership (e.g. the Australian Banking Royal Commission and Volkswagen's ‘Dieselgate’). Also, how effective leadership is measured needs to change. This paper presents a systematic review of 17 leadership scales developed in the new millennium. The majority of scales lack some degree of rigor. Our response has been to conduct eighteen critical checks over four stages of scale development: theory generation, item development, content validity, and empirical evaluation. On the premise that understanding past practices, with their limitations, can be used to drive forward a suite of more effective organizational tools, we provide best practice recommendations using contemporary psychometric research.     

‘In the wreck of a master's fortune’: slave provisioning and planter debt in the British Caribbean

This article traces how debates over the ability of indebted West Indian planters to adequately provision their slaves influenced the politics of slavery in the British Empire in an era of abolitionism and amelioration projects. Specifically, the article examines the promulgation of colonial laws establishing priorities for debts incurred for the purchase of slave provisions over mortgage debts in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. Debt-priority laws and contemporary responses to them suggest the ways in which both proslavery and antislavery interests defined and contested the moral as well as material dimensions of West Indian commerce and finance. A detailed quantitative case study provides information on provisioning and other expenses on two Tobago sugar estates (1807–1815).     

Exploring Minority Youths’ Police Encounters: A Qualitative Interpretive Meta-synthesis

Recent deaths by police of unarmed minority youth have raised important questions about the nature and outcomes of involuntary minority youth-police encounters. Youth are the most surveilled group of Americans and minority youth frequently live in neighborhoods disproportionately targeted for proactive policing (i.e., using broad police discretion to “target” those most likely to be engaged in criminal activity before criminal acts become apparent). Understanding the experiences of minority youth who encounter police officers is of critical concern for social workers in many practice and research areas. Social workers must examine how a minority person’s perceptions are formed through repeated, frequent, involuntary encounters with the police. The purpose of this qualitative interpretive meta-synthesis was to capture these experiences through the voices of minority youth in recounting their contacts with the police. Four themes were identified: dangerous, controlling, prejudiced, and ineffective. Further reduction of these themes resulted in an overarching theme that captures the essences of these youth’s experiences: dehumanization. These results enhance understanding of minority youth experience with police officers and, thus, inform social work advocacy efforts around this issue in both practice and research arenas.     

Child witness support and preparation: are parents/caregivers ignored?

Over recent decades research has confirmed the sensible belief that to participate in criminal proceedings (that were designed for adults) child witnesses may benefit from support and preparation. This is so even in countries where special measures have been introduced to make it less arduous for children to give their testimony (e.g. closed circuit television to allow children to testify away from the actual courtroom; video recorded evidence‐in‐chief). Indeed, it could be argued that as more and more children provide testimony (e.g. as alleged victims or witnesses), the more comprehensive should be preparation and support programmes for them. However, while in some countries preparation and support programmes are now offered to such children, the needs of these children's (non‐offending) parents/caregivers seem to be ignored. This paper contends not only that these adults need preparation and support but also that the provision of this is likely to benefit child witnesses. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Biomedical research: Are we getting value for money?

Billions of dollars are spent on biomedical research every year, but what tangible benefits for patients result from this massive investment? Iain Chalmers suggests that the research community has become seriously dysfunctional, that patients and the public should expect better dividends from their support of biomedical research, and that the entire research community must provide better, more effective research or risk losing the support of the public.     

Predicting Oscar winners

Each year, hundreds of millions of people worldwide watch the televised Oscars ceremony. Can one predict which films and which directors, actors and actresses will win the Oscars? Iain Pardoe believes that he can.