Mitigating the political participation gap from the school: the roles of civic knowledge and classroom climate

Empirical evidence has consistently shown that political participation is positively related with socioeconomic background. Furthermore, recent research suggests that children who come from low status families are already less willing to get politically involved. The present paper aims to analyze the possible impact that schools can have in mitigating the effect of parents' socioeconomic status on students' expected electoral participation, focusing on two variables: civic knowledge and classroom climate. The analyses are based on a series of multilevel models using Chilean data of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2009. The results support the influence of students' socioeconomic background on expected electoral participation. Furthermore, civic knowledge and classroom climate show a positive and similar influence on students' expected participation. However, classroom climate appears less affected by students' background than civic knowledge, opening the discussion about which strategy should be emphasized when aiming to mitigate the political participation gap.     

Sample Splitting and Applied Econometric Modeling

Often in applied econometric work, the sample of observations is split so that within each subsample the observations can reasonably be assumed to have the same parameter values. In this article I present a procedure for sample splitting that uses cluster analysis techniques. The procedure is illustrated with data from a cross-section of households obtaining subsamples with homogeneous demand parameters. The groups turn out to be determined, primarily, by occupation of the family head. Demand behavior is studied in each of the resulting groups.     

Kindergartners' Temperament,Classroom Engagement,and Student–teacher Relationship: Moderation by Effortful Control

The purpose of this study was to examine whether kindergartners' (N = 291; M age = 5 years) effortful control (EC), impulsivity, anger, or shyness predict their classroom participation, school liking, and student–teacher relationship. Parents and teachers reported on children's temperament. Children's EC and impulsivity were also assessed with the Continuous Performance Task. Teachers and children reported on classroom participation and school liking, and teachers reported on the student–teacher relationship. Consistent with predictions, EC was frequently positively related to the outcomes. Both impulsivity and anger were often negatively related to the outcomes. Evidence of a quadratic relation, in the form of an inverted U, between shyness and the student–teacher relationship also emerged. There was evidence that EC moderated many of the main effects. Subsequent analyses for impulsivity and anger demonstrated that the negative relations were often only for children low in EC whereas the negative relation for shyness was for children high in EC. Findings illustrate the utility in considering multiple ways components of temperament relate to early indices of school success.     

The preponderant causes of the USA banking crisis 2007–08

Scientific research on the banking crisis 2007–08 has answered many important questions according to generally accepted methodological standards. However, there remains at least one outstanding question that has not been answered with methodological accuracy: What caused the severe USA banking crisis 2007–08? To address this question the paper uses a counterfactual definition of ‘cause,’ distinguishes between separable and non-separable causes, and employs a well-posed methodology for the causation analysis of singular events. In addition, first causes and preponderant causes are distinguished. The main result of this paper is that the preponderant causes of the banking crisis 2007–08 were securitization and ignorance.     

The measurement of gender wage discrimination: the distributional approach revisited

This paper presents the advantages of taking into account the distribution of the individual wage gap when analyzing female wage discrimination. Several limitations of previous approaches such as the classic Oaxaca–Blinder and the recent distributive proposals using quantile regressions or counterfactual functions are thoroughly discussed. The methodology presented here relies on Jenkins’ (J Econom 61:81–102, 1994) work and supports the use of poverty and deprivation literature techniques that are directly applicable to the measurement of discrimination. In an empirical illustration, we quantify the relevance of the glass ceiling and sticky floor phenomena in the Spanish labor market.     

Towards the equality of educational opportunity in the province of Buenos Aires

The aim of this paper is to simulate some education policies which would be consistent with different definitions of equality of opportunity (EO). In concrete, we estimate how educational resources should be distributed in order to achieve equality of educational opportunity in the province of Buenos Aires. For that purpose we use a stochastic production frontier model for 12 years old students. The results change drastically depending on the considered concept of EO. If that means giving everybody the same school inputs, the change is not significant. If we want to equalize the academic outputs, the policy is simply impracticable. But if we want to equalize the academic output considering the efforts made by the pupils, the policy is expensive but achievable.     

Methylmercury Risks and EPA + DHA Benefits Associated with Seafood Consumption in Europe

The intake of methyl‐Hg and EPA + DHA through consumption of seafood in Europe as well as the associated probability of exceeding the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) and the recommended daily intake (RDI), respectively, were estimated by combining methyl‐Hg and EPA + DHA contents in the five most consumed seafood species with hypothesized consumption distributions for eight European countries, chosen on the basis of size and representative significance. Two estimators were used: plug‐in (PI) and tail estimation (TE). The latter was based on the application of the extreme value theory to the intakes distribution curves. Whereas contents data were collected from own database and published scientific papers, consumption data were obtained from statistical sources of the various countries. Seafood consumption levels varied considerably between countries, from 140 in the United Kingdom to 628.5 g/(person.week) in Iceland. The main consumed species were also different between countries. The probability of exceeding the methyl‐Hg PTWI ranged from 0.04% in the United Kingdom to 9.61% in Iceland. Concerning the probability of exceeding the RDI of EPA + DHA, Iceland was third, after Portugal (66.05%) and Spain (61.05%) and the United Kingdom was the last (0.32%). While TE was most accurate for small probabilities, PI yielded best estimates for larger probabilities.     

On the relative efficiency of a monotone parameter curve estimator in a functional nonlinear model

Functional regression models that relate functional covariates to a scalar response are becoming more common due to the availability of functional data and computational advances. We introduce a functional nonlinear model with a scalar response where the true parameter curve is monotone. Using the Newton-Raphson method within a backfitting procedure, we discuss a penalized least squares criterion for fitting the functional nonlinear model with the smoothing parameter selected using generalized cross validation. Connections between a nonlinear mixed effects model and our functional nonlinear model are discussed, thereby providing an additional model fitting procedure using restricted maximum likelihood for smoothing parameter selection. Simulated relative efficiency gains provided by a monotone parameter curve estimator relative to an unconstrained parameter curve estimator are presented. In addition, we provide an application of our model with data from ozonesonde measurements of stratospheric ozone in which the measurements are biased as a function of altitude.     

Teaching Consumer Demographics to Marketing Students

This paper reports on an initiative to incorporate consumer demographics—techniques and concepts that are not traditionally part of the curriculum of marketing students—into a second year consumer behaviour subject, for an undergraduate marketing degree, and also into related post-graduate study. It addresses three topics: (1) the position of demographics and demographic techniques in the field of consumer behaviour, and more generally in marketing; (2) approaches to the study of consumer behaviour; and (3) the authors’ recommended approach to teaching consumer demographics and behaviour. The authors’ views are informed by their experience teaching 15 undergraduate and postgraduate cohorts.     

Gambling and Adverse Life Events Among Urban Adolescents

This study explored the cross sectional association between adverse life events and gambling in a sample of 515 urban adolescents (average age 17, 55% male, 88% African American). Approximately half of the sample had gambled in the past year (51%); 78% of the gamblers gambled monthly and 39% had a gambling-related problem. On the other hand, 88% of the sample had experienced at least one life event in the past year, and those experiencing events tended to live in more disadvantaged neighborhoods. The mere acknowledgement of experiencing a stressful life event in the past year (yes/no) was not associated with an increase in odds of being a gambler, with gambling more frequently, or with having a gambling problem. However, when the context of the event was considered, an association was found between directly experiencing threatening and deviant/violent types of events and frequent gambling (OR > 2). Additionally, the probability of being a gambler increased as the number of events experienced increased (aOR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.01, 1.13, P = 0.013), but problems among gamblers were not associated with the number of events experienced (aOR = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.92, 1.11, P = 0.876). During adolescence, life events appear to be connected more with the frequency of gambling rather than with problems related to gambling.