THE WORLD OIL CRISIS: A PORTFOLIO INTERPRETATION

This paper applies the mean-variance portfolio model to the analysis of one facet of the production decision confronting the oil exporting countries. Specifically we assume that the countries in question seek the optimal solution to the problem of diversifying their assets between oil reserves in the ground and other non-petroleum investment alternatives. With respect to the group of countries which tend to accumulate money resources in excess of their domestic development needs (e. g., Saudi Arabia and Kuwait) the availability of an "inflation-proof" investment outlet whose principal and interest are linked to a general index of the change in world prices is likely to enhance these countries' incentive to extract oil from the ground on portfolio considerations alone.     

School-based interventions with depressed minority adolescents

School-based approaches to intervention with depressed minority adolescents is discussed within a preventive framework. The symptomatology and epidemiology of depression is presented as it pertains to minority group adolescents. Specific suggestions for school-based services, the uses of school-based mental health professionals, and for coordination with mental health agencies are provided.     

THE METRICS OF STYLE: ADAM SMITH TEACHES EFFICIENT RHETORIC

Does style matter for economic writing? Several stylistic characteristics of ninety-seven AEA presidential addresses, including word length, sentence length and percent of sentences in the passive voice, were computed and used to explain citations to these economists' work. Avoidance of the passive is an old stylistic norm given by Adam Smith. Word length and sentence length serve as modern stylistic norms. Only the percent passive matters to explain citations. Perhaps not coincidentally, while writing clarity in our data set has declined over time when measured by the new norm, it has improved when measured by the old norm.     

Optimal control designs using predicting densities for the multivariate linear model

We provide an application of a variety of predicting densities to quality control involving multivariate normal linear models. We produce optimal control designs for single muleivaiiate future observations using predicting densities employing estimative, profile likelihood, Hinkley-Lauritzen, Butler, Bayesian, and Parametric Bootstrap methodologies. The decision-theoretic optimality criterion is an intuitively appealing quadratic consumer-producer risk function. The optimal control design arising from an optimal Kullback-Leibler frequentist prediction density is shown to coincide with that arising from an optimal Kullback-Leibler Bayesian predictive density. An example involving EVOP is provided to illustrate the methodology and to raise questions concerning the relative merics of the variety of predictive approaches in the quality control context.     

The nation's drug problem is commercial recreational pharmacology

Overdose deaths, overprescribing of opioids, illicit production of fentanyl, a resurgence of methamphetamine and cocaine, and an epidemic of vaping‐related illnesses and substance use disorders cover the nation's headlines today, as they have for years. These problems are manifestations of commercial recreational pharmacology, the personally controlled use of psychoactive drugs that super‐stimulate brain reward for pleasure. While substance use and addiction have been known throughout history, the recent increasingly greater acceptance of commercial recreational pharmacology in the United States is exacting a toll on the public health of the nation. The most dramatic example is a decline in U.S. life expectancy, which fell three years in a row from 2016–2018 as a result of overdose deaths.     

Reducing Prejudice: Lessons From Social-Cognitive Factors Underlying Perceiver Differences in Prejudice

This article describes research findings on individual differences in stereotyping and shows how these findings have been and can be further applied to prejudice reduction efforts. A notable strength of this 'new' generation of individual difference work is its dynamic nature—that individual differences can be both stable and malleable. The first section of this article reviews work showing that both adults and children differ in social-cognitive factors related to stereotyping, namely the way theyprocess social information and their endorsement of social ideologies. The second section describes intervention strategies that target these factors. In the final section, limitations and future directions of basic and applied research on individual differences and stereotyping arediscussed.