Inequality comparisons when the populations differ in size

This paper considers the problem of comparing two income distributions with different numbers of income recipients. The approach eschews the “replication of populations” of Dalton’s Population Principle which has been a fixture of the literature on income inequality since its inception. We start from a preorder which is a generalization of majorization, construct the “better-than” set and characterize the order-preserving welfare functions in a unified framework. The fixed population case falls off as a particular case.     

Interpersonal Amplification of Risk? Citizen Discussions and Their Impact on Perceptions of Risks and Benefits of a Biological Research Facility

Much risk communication research has demonstrated how mass media can influence individual risk perceptions, but lacks a comprehensive conceptual understanding of another key channel of communication: interpersonal discussion. Using the social amplification of risk as a theoretical framework, we consider the potential for discussions to function as amplification stations. We explore this possibility using data from a public opinion survey of residents living in potential locations for a new biological research facility in the United States. Controlling for a variety of key information variables, our results show that two dimensions of discussion—frequency and valence—have impacts on residents’ perceptions of the facility's benefits and its risks. We also explore the possibility that an individual's overall attitude moderates the effect of discussion on their perceptions of risks and benefits. Our results demonstrate the potential for discussions to operate as amplifiers or attenuators of perceptions of both risks and benefits.     

Consistency of a class of information criteria for model selection in non-linear regression

In this paper we prove the consistency in probability of a class of generalized BIC criteria for model selection in non-linear regression, by using asymptotic results of Gallant. This extends a result obtained by Nishii for model selection in linear regression.     

Early Word Recognition in Sentence Context: French and English 24‐Month‐Olds' Sensitivity to Sentence‐Medial Mispronunciations and Assimilations

Recent work has shown that young children can use fine phonetic detail during the recognition of isolated and sentence‐final words from early in lexical development. The present study investigates 24‐month‐olds' word recognition in sentence‐medial position in two experiments using an Intermodal Preferential Looking paradigm. In Experiment 1, French toddlers detect word‐final voicing mispronunciations (e.g., bu z [by z ] for bu s [by s ] “bus”), and they compensate for native voicing assimilations (e.g., bu z d evant toi [bu zd ?vɑ?twa] “bus in front of you”) in the middle of sentences. Similarly, English toddlers detect word‐final voicing mispronunciations (e.g., shee b for shee p ) in Experiment 2, but they do not compensate for illicit voicing assimilations (e.g., shee b th ere). Thus, French and English 24‐month‐olds can take into account fine phonetic detail even if words are presented in the middle of sentences, and French toddlers show language‐specific compensation abilities for pronunciation variation caused by native voicing assimilation.     

Gambling among primary school students

This study identifies the gambling behavior of 1,320 primary school students aged 8 to 12 of the 4th, 5th and 6th grades. Eighty-six percent admitted to having, at some time or another, bet money. Lotteries are the most popular form of gambling for this age group. Sixty-one percent of these students gamble with lotteries. In descending order of popularity, other games played by students were: bingo, card-playing for money, bets on sports, wagering on specific events, video gambling (video poker and slot machines), and finally betting on games of skill. Gambling behaviors differed according to gender. More than 40% of respondents reported gambling once a week or more for at least one game. Because of the early development of gambling behavior in children, prevention programs for pathological gambling should be implemented as early as the fourth grade.This research was supported by a grant from the Fonds Richelieu.     

Building strategy on technological resources and commercial proactiveness: The Gemplus case

This article uses the resource-based framework for analyzing the strategy of Gemplus, a spin-off of the French group Thomson, that has grown by 50 per cent each year since its creation in 1988. Three points are highlighted: (1) Gemplus combined various resources in order to build a distinctive competence base in three areas: smart cards design, mass production and mass customization, commercial capabilities. (2) The company's strategy is two-fold: a constant enlargement of the spectrum of applications of its core product (i.e. the smart card), supported by technology exploitation and commercial awareness, and an aggressive search for new geographical markets, supported by commercial proactiveness. (3) Gemplus continuously nurtures its resource base through a vast network of partners (with means such as R&D and joint-ventures). To summarize, we explain the success of Gemplus by a talented balance between an outside-in and an inside-out approach.     

Directed Steiner trees with diffusion costs

Given a directed arc-weighted graph G with n nodes, a root r and k terminals, the directed steiner tree problem (DST) consists in finding a minimum-weight tree rooted at r and spanning all the terminals. If this problem has several applications in multicast routing in packet switching networks, the modeling is not adapted anymore in networks based upon the circuit switching principle in which some nodes, called non diffusing nodes, are unable to duplicate packets. We define a more general problem, namely the directed steiner tree with a limited number of diffusing nodes (DSTLD), that enables us to model multicast in a network containing at most d diffusing nodes. We show that DSTLD is XP with respect to d, and use this result to build a \(\left\lceil \frac{k-1}{d} \right\rceil \)-approximation algorithm for DST that is XP in d. We deduce from that result a strong inapproximability property. In particular, we prove that, under the assumption that NP \(\not \subseteq \) ZTIME \([n^{\log ^{O(1)}n}]\), there is no polynomial-time approximation algorithm for DSTLD with ratio \(\varOmega \left( \frac{k}{d}\right) \). We finally give an evaluation of performances of an exact algorithm dedicated to the case \(d \le 3\).     

The Polls Trends: Public Reactions to Global Health Threats and Infectious Diseases

Over the past two decades, newly emerging infectious diseaseshave developed into major global health concerns, sparking intensemedia coverage, and triggering fears of a global outbreak amongpublic health experts and authorities. This article focuseson trends in American attitudes toward these newly emerged infectiousdiseases by analyzing poll data over the past 6 years aboutissues relating to avian flu, severe acute respiratory syndrome,West Nile virus, and anthrax. The polls show that Americans’attention to news coverage seemed to be event driven, peakingwhen there were new human or animal cases, and decreasing rapidlywhen the diseases seemed to have been contained. Americans’perceptions of threats were usually the highest in the earlystages of major outbreaks. The public became more complacentwhen the outbreaks seemed to be under control. Both behavioralchanges and general knowledge remained largely constant, suggestinga limited impact of the various informational and awarenesscampaigns by governmental agencies in the wake of these pandemics. Abbreviations: ABC, ABC News • ABC/WP, ABC News/Washington Post • AP/IPSOS, IPSOS-Public Affairs for Associated Press • CBS, CBS News • CBS/NYT, CBS News/New York Times • GALLUP, Gallup Organization • GALLUP/CNN/USA, Gallup Organization for CNN/USA Today • HARRIS/TIME/CNN, Harris Interactive for Time and CNN • ICR/HARVARD, International Communications Research for Harvard School of Public Health Project on the Public and Biological Security • ICR/HARVARD-RWJF, International Communications Research for Harvard School of Public Health Project, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation • IPSOS/DC, IPSOS-Reid for Dittus Communications • NORC, National Opinion Research Center • OD/FOX, Opinion Dynamics for Fox News • PSRA/KAISER, Princeton Survey Research Associates for Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Harvard School of Public Health • PSRA/NEWS, Princeton Survey Research Associates for Newsweek • PSRA/PEW, Princeton Survey Research Associates for Pew Research Center • PSRA/PMFMI, Princeton Survey Research Associates for Prevention Magazine/Food Marketing Institute     

EARLY LITERACY ACHIEVEMENTS,POPULATION DENSITY,AND THE TRANSITION TO MODERN GROWTH

The transition from economic stagnation to sustained growth is often modeled thanks to “population‐induced” productivity improvements, which are assumed rather than derived from primary assumptions. In this paper the effect of population on productivity is derived from optimal behavior. More precisely, both the number and location of education facilities are chosen optimally by municipalities. Individuals determine their education investment depending on the distance to the nearest school, and also on technical progress and longevity. In this setting, higher population density enables the set‐up costs of additional schools to be covered, opening the possibility to reach higher educational levels. Using counterfactual experiments we find that one‐third of the rise in literacy can be directly attributed to the effect of density, and one‐sixth is linked to higher longevity. Moreover, the effect of population density in the model is consistent with the available evidence for England, where it is shown that schools were established at a high rate over the period 1540–1620. (JEL: O41, I21, R12, J11)