On Optimal Rules of Persuasion

A speaker wishes to persuade a listener to accept a certain request. The conditions under which the request is justified, from the listener's point of view, depend on the values of two aspects. The values of the aspects are known only to the speaker and the listener can check the value of at most one. A mechanism specifies a set of messages that the speaker can send and a rule that determines the listener's response, namely, which aspect he checks and whether he accepts or rejects the speaker's request. We study mechanisms that maximize the probability that the listener accepts the request when it is justified and rejects the request when it is unjustified, given that the speaker maximizes the probability that his request is accepted. We show that a simple optimal mechanism exists and can be found by solving a linear programming problem in which the set of constraints is derived from what we call the L‐principle.     

Maternal Age and Child Development

Although the consequences of teen births for both mothers and children have been studied for decades, few studies have taken a broader look at the potential payoffs—and drawbacks—of being born to older mothers. A broader examination is important given the growing gap in maternal ages at birth for children born to mothers with low and high socioeconomic status. Drawing data from the Children of the NLSY79, our examination of this topic distinguishes between the value for children of being born to a mother who delayed her first birth and the value of the additional years between her first birth and the birth of the child whose achievements and behaviors at ages 10–13 are under study. We find that each year the mother delays a first birth is associated with a 0.02 to 0.04 standard deviation increase in school achievement and a similar-sized reduction in behavior problems. Coefficients are generally as large for additional years between the first and given birth. Results are fairly robust to the inclusion of cousin and sibling fixed effects, which attempt to address some omitted variable concerns. Our mediational analyses show that the primary pathway by which delaying first births benefits children is by enabling mothers to complete more years of schooling.     

Parental employment circumstances and children’s academic progress

Using data from the 1996 Survey of Income and Program Participation, we examine 4476 school-age children in 2569 families with matched pairs of married fathers and mothers to study children’s academic progress as a function of fathers’ and mothers’ employment circumstances, with a particular focus on involuntary employment separations. We draw on weekly work histories, collected at 4-month intervals, to characterize parental employment circumstances over a two-year period. Results find no significant associations between mothers’ employment experiences and children’s academic progress, even in households where mothers earn more than fathers. In contrast, fathers’ experience of involuntary employment separations is associated with children’s academic progress. On average, fathers’ experience of involuntary employment separations is associated with a higher likelihood of children’s grade repetition and suspension/expulsion from school. However, subgroup analyses reveal this association only in households where mothers earn more than fathers. We conclude that the adverse impacts of fathers’ involuntary employment separations in two-parent families have less to do with income losses than with family dynamics.     

Apprehensive about retirement: Women,life transitions,and relationships

Understanding women’s attitudes toward retirement is crucial for being able to help women adjust to this transition. The present study uses interviews and questionnaires to understand retirement ambivalence and the role that close relationships play in women’s retirement experiences. Findings indicate that women have mixed feelings about retirement; they are both excited and fearful. They particularly enjoy the freedom and control this transition brings but are also moderately fearful of retirement, especially about shifting relationships. A better-quality relationship correlates with greater satisfaction and less fear. Such insights can be used to help women prepare for this major transition.     

Tracing a cartography of struggle: reflections on twenty years of transnational solidarity with the U’wa people of Colombia

ABSTRACT

The author reflects upon two decades of research and activism by mapping a cartography of struggle that emphasizes the importance of relationality and Indigenous theory and practice.     

Human Capital, Physical Health, and Mental Health of Welfare Recipients: Co-occurrence and Correlates

Drawing on a large random sample of welfare recipients in the post–welfare reform era, this article examines the prevalence of mental health disorders, substance dependence, and physical health or disability, their co-occurrence with human capital problems, and their relation to employment. Half of the participants have none of these potential barriers to employment. Mental health and human capital problems, when present, tend to occur in isolation about half the time. Women with co-occurring human-capital, mental-health, and physical-health problems have the poorest work outcomes. The findings suggest the need to design and implement more assessment, referrals, and service provision to support women in meeting the challenges in the transition from welfare to work.     

An ergonomic study on the navigation structure and information units of websites with multimedia content. A case study of the Xbox 360 promotional website

This paper presents an ergonomic study on the navigation structures and information units of entertainment sites with multimedia content. This research is a case study on the XBOX 360 promotional website. It analyzes the presentation of the content on a grid that simulates the spatial displacement of the screen's elements and evaluates the interaction that the page allows for, from the users' point of view.     

MODELING THE ECONOMIC INTERACTION OF AGENTS WITH DIVERSE ABILITIES TO RECOGNIZE EQUILIBRIUM PATTERNS

We model differences among agents in their ability to recognize temporal patterns of prices. Using the concept of DeBruijn sequences in two dynamic models of markets, we demonstrate the existence of equilibria in which prices fluctuate in a pattern that is independent of the fundamentals and that can be recognized only by the more competent agents. (JEL: C7, D4, S477)     

Values in Middle Childhood: Social and Genetic Contributions

Theories of value development often identify adolescence as the period for value formation, and cultural and familial factors as the sources for value priorities. However, recent research suggests that value priorities can be observed as early as in middle childhood, and several studies, including one on preadolescents, have suggested a genetic contribution to individual differences in values. In the current study, 174 pairs of monozygotic and dizygotic seven‐year‐old Israeli twins completed the Picture‐based Value Survey for Children (PBVS–C). We replicated basic patterns of relations between value priorities and variables of socialization—gender, religiosity, and socioeconomic status—that have been found in studies with adults. Most important, values of Self‐transcendence, Self‐enhancement, and Conservation, were found to be significantly affected by genetic factors (29 percent, 47 percent, and 31 percent, respectively), as well as non‐shared environment (71 percent, 53 percent, and 69 percent, respectively). Openness to change values, in contrast, were found to be unaffected by genetic factors at this age and were influenced by shared (19 percent) and non‐shared (81 percent) environment. These findings support the recent view that values are formed at earlier ages than had been assumed previously, and they further our understanding of the genetic and environmental factors involved in value formation at young ages.