COOPERATION IN PUBLIC GOODS GAMES PREDICTS BEHAVIOR IN INCENTIVE-MATCHED BINARY DILEMMAS: EVIDENCE FOR STABLE PROSOCIALITY

We report the results of an experiment in which subjects completed second mover public goods game tasks and second mover binary social dilemma tasks. Each task was completed under three different incentive structures which were matched across tasks. The use of nonlinear incentive structures, along with a novel categorization method, allowed us to identify behavioral subtypes that cannot be distinguished using conventional linear incentive structures. We also examined how well behavior could be predicted across tasks. Subjects' average conditional cooperation levels showed significant cross-task predictability and stability. However, almost a third of responses (28%) demonstrated unambiguous preference reversals across tasks. We argue that prosociality is best described as an individual-level trait, similar to risk aversion in choice under risk. (JEL C7, C91, H41)     

Mammy’s Milk and Absent Black Children

Through an incisive and delicate reading of the figure of the Black mammy in Melanie Klein, Emily Green suggests that we imagine Klein’s processes of reparation as interracial, in that they offer a way toward making sense of racial violence and the ways in which its contours haunt the contemporary. This reading provides a way for psychoanalysis to acknowledge its Whiteness and begin to grapple with Blackness. This response, however, explores what this reading suggests about race and sensation and the processes by which Blackness is rendered abstract. It ends by posing questions about the materiality of the mammy and the absence of a psychoanalytic discourse on the Black child.     

Financial Planners and Philanthropic Planning

This article reports findings from a survey of Canadian financial planners. The focus of the study is learning more about the depth and breadth of philanthropic planning that is included in their advising services to their high-net worth clients. The findings indicate that a minority of financial planners (1) regularly broach the topic of philanthropy in their counseling, (2) believe their clients are interested in philanthropy, and (3) feel sufficiently knowledgeable to assist their clients with philanthropic planning. The implications of these findings and recommendations for improvement are discussed.     

Social Capital Across the Life Course: Age and Gendered Patterns of Network Resources1

Despite increasing research interest in network dynamics and cumulative advantage/disadvantage processes, little remains known about how social capital varies across the life course. While some researchers suggest that social capital increases with age and others argue the opposite, this study tests these contradictory assertions by analyzing multiple indicators of social capital from a nationally representative data set on working‐age U.S. respondents. The findings reveal evidence of both social capital accumulation and decline. Social resources from occupational contacts tend to increase with age, but eventually level off among older respondents. Changes in voluntary memberships follow a similar pattern. However, daily social interaction is negatively associated with age. Overall, the results suggest that social capital embedded in occupational networks tends to accumulate across the career, even in the face of a general decline in sociability. The study also uncovers gender differences in these social capital trajectories that are linked to the distinct life experiences of men and women.     

Alternative beta estimation for the market model using partially adaptive techniques

The leptokurtosls of many security market return distributions can contaminate ordinary least squares estimates of the β coefficient of the market model. Partially adaptive estimation techniques accommodate the possibility of fat tailed distributions. this methodology limits the influence of extremely large residuals and yields estimates which are both statistically and practically different from ordinary least squares.     

Reply

Beginning with the 1990 Census and the January 1992 Current Population Survey (CPS), the Bureau of the Census changed the emphasis of its educational-attainment question from years of education to degree receipt. Using a matched sample from the 1991 and 1992 March CPS, this article addresses how to reconcile the old and new questions. The effects of those methods on the estimated return(s) to education are then examined. Both the estimated linear return and the estimated college–high-school wage differential are slightly larger using information from the new question.