Dissonant Discourses in Institutional Communications on Sexual Violence

ABSTRACT

This article is a discourse analysis of a large Northwestern research university’s official communications regarding sexual violence for a 15-month time frame. Through close reading of these communications, we found that concurrent with high levels of criticism in the spring of 2014 over the university’s handling of a high-profile rape case, the university advanced dissonant discourses of risk and responsibility in its communications regarding sexual violence. At both the institutional and individual levels, these dissonant discourses work to construct who is at risk of committing or experiencing sexual violence, and who is responsible for preventing and responding to it. In conclusion, we discuss possible implications for these dissonant discourses on the future of campus sexual violence prevention and university response.     

The Gender Wage Gap and Poverty in Colombia

Abstract. Using 19 years of cross‐section wage data, we look at the trend of the ratio of male to female wages in Colombia. First, we observe a long‐term trend towards an increase in the gender wage gap that may be related to new labor regulations giving more protection to women and thereby raising the cost of female employment for firms. Second, we measure the impact on poverty of the increasing gap by producing estimates of the income distribution for the subsequent years had the wage gap remained at the low level it used to be in the early 1990s. As mainly low‐skilled women suffered from the increase in the wage gap, we find that the phenomenon contributed to an overall increase in poverty during the decade.     

Economic consequences of Nth-degree risk increases and Nth-degree risk attitudes

We study comparative statics of Nth-degree risk increases within a large class of problems that involve bidimensional payoffs and additive or multiplicative risks. We establish necessary and sufficient conditions for unambiguous impact of Nth-degree risk increases on optimal decision making. We develop a simple and intuitive approach to interpret these conditions : novel notions of directional Nth-degree risk aversion that are characterized via preferences over lotteries.     

Sustainable Conservation of Cultural Heritage: A Global Responsibility. Sichuan Towers Case Study

This paper has been developed in the framework of a larger research program, in which the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Tsinghua University and Yangzhou University are jointly involved to study and preserve historic towers. Cultural heritage is the intangible and tangible attributes of a society, including the natural heritage, that are inherited from past generations, preserved in the present and granted for the next generations. Nowadays we consider the cultural heritage as a world heritage belonging to all the people of the world, irrespective on which territory they are located. This paper presents a model and a methodological hypothesis to conserve cultural heritage in a sustainable way throughout the case study of Sichuan Towers (China) that could become an example for other cultural sites around the world, connecting the environmental and socio-economical aspect to the tourism development.      

Would a Commodity‐based Trade Approach Improve Market Access for Africa? A Case Study of the Potential of Beef Exports from Communal Areas of Namibia

Market access for African livestock products has long been stymied by a variety of animal diseases endemic in the region. The concept of commodity‐based trade (CBT) has been advanced to make trade dependent on process‐related attributes of production that ensure freedom from disease rather than the geographical origin of the animals themselves. This article looks at the potential of CBT in improving market access for beef from communal areas of Namibia, which have historically been excluded from high‐value export markets. Model results suggest only modest gains from CBT, given the substantial costs of compliance with SPS and quality standards required for high‐value markets. Regional markets may still offer the best option for beef exports from these areas.     

Correction to: Vertical and Horizontal Inequality in Ecuador: The Lack of Sustainability

Social Indicators Research - The article Vertical and Horizontal Inequality in Ecuador: The Lack of Sustainability, written Ivan Gachet, Diego F. Grijalva, Paúl A. Ponce and Damián...     

Headquarters involvement,socialization, and entrepreneurial behaviors in MNC subsidiaries

Headquarters of multinational corporations can be involved in their subsidiaries and help with the development and transfer of innovative ideas. However, headquarters involvement might not always be desired or needed, and it can thus be perceived as interference with local activities, potentially reducing local willingness to go the extra mile. We address the lack of knowledge about subsidiary manager behavior by answering the following question: How does headquarters involvement influence the proactive behavior of subsidiary managers to push for new and innovative ideas? Using data from 120 top managers in subsidiaries of multinational corporations, we find that the negative relationship between headquarters involvement and their subsidiary managers' support for initiatives can be reduced when socialization mechanisms such as a common corporate culture or rotation programs are put in place.     

Studentized bootstrap confidence intervals based on M-estimates

This article reviews and applies saddlepoint approximations to studentized confidence intervals based on robust M-estimates. The latter are known to be very accurate without needing standard theory assumptions. As examples, the classical studentized statistic, the studentized versions of Huber's M-estimate of location, of its initially MAD scaled version and of Huber's proposal 2 are considered. The aim is to know whether the studentized statistics yield robust confidence intervals with coverages close to nominal, with short intervals. The results of an extensive simulation study and the recommendations for practical use given in this article may fill gaps in the current literature and stimulate further discussion and research.     

The Rayleigh–Lindley model: properties and applications

In this paper, the Rayleigh–Lindley (RL) distribution is introduced, obtained by compounding the Rayleigh and Lindley discrete distributions, where the compounding procedure follows an approach similar to the one previously studied by Adamidis and Loukas in some other contexts. The resulting distribution is a two-parameter model, which is competitive with other parsimonious models such as the gamma and Weibull distributions. We study some properties of this new model such as the moments and the mean residual life. The estimation was approached via EM algorithm. The behavior of these estimators was studied in finite samples through a simulation study. Finally, we report two real data illustrations in order to show the performance of the proposed model versus other common two-parameter models in the literature. The main conclusion is that the model proposed can be a valid alternative to other competing models well established in the literature.