ON THE ESTIMATION OF REACTION FUNCTIONS FOR SEVERAL ECONOMIC POLICY MAKERS

When two policy authorities are exercising instruments to affect a common macroeconomic variable, this paper emphasizes the need for nonpolicy agents anticipating policy actions to identify a separate reaction function for each fully informed policy maker, based on observed equilibrium instrument settings. Estimation problems on reaction functions arise if the policy authorities have imperfect knowledge about the system they are attempting to control: if intercept errors occur in the system, long run policy may attain global equilibrium, but short run observed policy must be modelled as a disequilibrium process; if slope coefficient errors exist, even long run instrument settings may be biased due to asymptotic biases on coefficient estimation by authorities.     

Editor's Note: Symposium on the University as an Agent of Social Change

Editorial Introduction

Editor's Note: Symposium on the University as an Agent of Social Change     

The Use of Base Rate Information as a Function of Experienced Consistency

Three experiments examine the effect of base rate consistency under direct experience. Base rate consistency was manipulated by blocking trials and setting base rate choice reinforcement to be either consistent or inconsistent across trial blocks. Experiment 1 shows that, contrary to the usual finding, participants use base rate information more than individuating information when it is consistent, but less when it is inconsistent. In Experiment 2, this effect was replicated, and transferred in verbal questions posed subsequently. Despite experience with consistent base rates increasing sensitivity to base rates in word problems, verbal responses were far from normative. In Experiment 3, participants’ use of base rates was once again moderated by its consistency, but this effect was itself moderated by the diagnosticity of base rate information. Participants were highly accurate in estimating experienced base rates. These studies demonstrate that base rate usage is complex and a function of how base rates are presented (experienced versus summary statistics) and response format (choice proportions versus probability estimates). Knowledge of base rates was insufficient for proper usage in verbal word problems. Although choice proportions showed a sophisticated sensitivity to experienced base rate information, participants seemed unable to demonstrate a similar sophistication when given typical word problems indicating that base rate neglect is a function of information representation and not an inherent processing bias.     

College Students and Credit Card Use: The Role of Parents, Work Experience, Financial Knowledge, and Credit Card Attitudes

This study examined the influence of parental interactions, years of work experience, financial knowledge, credit card attitudes, and personal characteristics on college students’ credit card behaviors (i.e., number of cards and amount of debt). Based on data collected across seven universities (N = 413), we found that students who had parents who argued about finances, were juniors/seniors, and were comfortable making minimum payments were the most likely to have $500 or more in credit card debt and two or more credit cards. In addition, number of credit cards held was the only dependent variable influenced by gender and fear of credit cards. These results highlight the importance of early interventions in the life of college students including involving parents as positive role models.     

The “Crimean Sonnets” of Adam Mickiewicz—A New Translation

The collapse in 1989 of so-called “really existing socialism” in Poland affected the population in a profound way. The purpose of this essay is to establish how Polish films reflect and assess these changes. I am interested in the representation of society, especially the situation of young people, families and the functioning of institutions, such as education, the police and the church. I limit my analysis to a representative handful of films, which are set in contemporary Poland and have been praised by Polish critics for “catching the spirit of the time.” The films are: Nic (Nothing, 1998), directed by Dorota Kedzierzawska; D? ug (Debt, 1999), directed by Krzysztof Krauze; Patrz? na ciebie, Marysiu (I Look at You, Mary, 1999), directed by ?ukasz Barczyk; Cze?? , Tereska (Hello, Tereska, 2001) directed by Robert Gliński; and Portret podwójny (Double Portrait, 2001), directed by Mariusz Front. The observations contained in these films and the conclusions one can draw from them can be extended to other films made in the same period. The films presented in this paper were all made at the end of the first decade following the collapse of communism—not immediately after 1989. I chose them because they were part of a broader upsurge of high quality films about contemporary Poland, sharing a concern for style, and suggesting that filmmakers needed a certain temporal distance before engaging with the new Poland in novel ways.     

‘Outcasts from the world’: same-sex sexuality,authority, and belonging in post-emancipation Jamaica

In 1839, Jamaican plantation attorney Alexander Grant sued missionaries John Stainsby and Samuel Oughton for slander; they had accused Grant of ‘lewd and indecent practices’ with enslaved and apprenticed men. Missionaries and abolitionist supporters on one side, and Grant and the plantocracy on the other, used the scandal to challenge their opponents’ suitability to shape post-emancipation society. The trials show that sex – and same-sex sexuality – was central to the contest for social authority. Several freedmen testified that Grant had coerced them into sexual interactions. Grappling with archival silences, the essay considers how the admissions affected their sense of masculinity and communal belonging.     

Drunkorexia: Understanding the Co-occurrence of Alcohol Consumption and Eating/Exercise Weight Management Behaviors

Abstract

Objective: Examine the co-occurrence of alcohol consumption, physical activity, and disordered eating behaviors via a drunkorexia perspective. Participants: Nationally representative sample (n = 22,488) of college students completing the Fall 2008 National College Health Assessment. Methods: Hierarchical logistic regression was employed to determine if physical activity and disordered eating behaviors uniquely predicted binge drinking, while controlling for age, race, gender, year in college, Greek membership, and place of residence. Results: Physical activity and disordered eating made unique, statistically significant contributions. Moreover, including physical activity and disordered eating behaviors allowed for the correct classification of an additional 431 cases (ie, binge drinkers) over and above the predictive ability of the covariate-only model. Conclusions: Findings corroborate prior research indicating highly active college students are more likely to binge drink than their nonactive peers, and highlight the potential of a drunkorexia perspective in explaining the counterintuitive alcohol–activity association among college students.     

Elderly Volunteering in Europe: The Relationship Between Volunteering and Quality of Life Depends on Volunteering Rates

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This paper investigates the effect of volunteering on quality of life (QoL) in 50+ populations across European countries...