PROPERTY RIGHTS AND LOSS AVERSION IN CONTESTS

We analyze the effects of property rights and the resulting loss aversion on contest outcomes. We study three situations: in “gain” two players start with no prize and make sunk bids to win a prize; in “loss” both the players start with prizes and whoever loses the contest loses their prize; and in “mixed” only one player starts with a prize that stays with him if he wins, but is transferred to the rival otherwise. Since the differences among the treatments arise only from framing, the expected utility and the standard loss aversion models predict no difference in bids across treatments. We introduce a loss aversion model in which the property rights are made salient, and as a result the reference point varies across treatments. This model predicts average bids in descending order in the loss, the mixed, and the gain treatment; and higher bids by the player with property rights in the mixed treatment. The results from a laboratory experiment broadly support these predictions. There is no significant difference in bids in the loss (gain) treatment and bids by property rights holder (nonholder) in the mixed treatment. A model incorporating both loss aversion and social preferences explains this result. (JEL C91, C72, D23, D74)     

An Exploration of the Influence of Household Poverty Spells on Mortality Risk

Household poverty is dynamic and characterized in terms of spells. Exposure to poverty accumulates through the recurrence and persistence of spells, leading to divergent family adaptive strategies that contribute to mortality risk. The data set used in this study is longitudinal and contains socioeconomic and demographic data of a nationally representative sample. The findings are (a) poverty significantly increases mortality risk, controlling for age, gender, and race; (b) the first spell is especially potent, and mortality risk declines rapidly during subsequent spells; and (c) both direction and strength of these estimates are robust to marital status, but power diminishes significantly net of education and employment.     

Birth order matters: the effect of family size and birth order on educational attainment

Using the British Household Panel Survey, we investigate if family size and birth order affect children’s subsequent educational attainment. Theory suggests a trade-off between child quantity and “quality” and that siblings are unlikely to receive equal shares of parental resources devoted to children’s education. We construct a new birth order index that effectively purges family size from birth order and use this to test if siblings are assigned equal shares in the family’s educational resources. We find that the shares are decreasing with birth order. Ceteris paribus, children from larger families have less education, and the family size effect does not vanish when we control for birth order. These findings are robust to numerous specification checks.

Factors influencing resubstantiation of child neglect in South Korea: A comparison with other maltreatment cases

While a high prevalence of child neglect cases has been reported by Child Protective Services (CPS) in Western countries, child neglect cases reported to South Korea's Child Protection Agency (CPA) present different trends than those in Western countries. Nevertheless, child neglect is an understudied area within child welfare. Thus, a need exists to investigate the unique characteristics of child neglect cases substantiated by the CPA in Korea. This study investigates the unique characteristics of child neglect cases and examines how factors associated with the resubstantiation of these cases differ from those of other maltreatment cases. Using CPA administrative data, we employed a multilevel discrete‐time hazard analysis to analyze the risk and protective factors associated with the resubstantiation of child neglect cases and compared the results with other maltreatment cases. In both cases, younger children, perpetrators with alcohol problems, families receiving welfare, and months of agency operation were associated with resubstantiation. For child neglect cases, the provision of child and parent services, and CPAs located in metropolitan area were protective factors that reduced the risk of resubstantiation. The finding in this study highlights the need to expand the provision of services to child neglect cases to prevent resubstantiation.     

Is your church “liked” on Facebook? Social media use of Christian congregations in the United States

Despite the increasing interests in social media platforms among religious congregations, little is known about the patterns of these organizations' social media use. This study examines religious congregations' adoption of Facebook, using the data from the 2012 National Congregations Study. The results show that Christian congregations' involvement in nonreligious activities, both social service and political activities, predicts their Facebook adoption. Congregations' membership size and staff resources are also positively associated with their Facebook use. Other organizational characteristics, including religious tradition, clergyperson's age, and urban location, also explain congregations' Facebook use. Overall, the findings suggest that Christian congregations' adoption of social media platforms is closely related with their community outreach and social marketing activities as well as their resources. This study concludes with suggestions for narrowing the gap in social media use between resource‐rich and resource‐restricted congregations, as well as between urban and rural congregations.     

Factors Related to the Institutionalization of Older Aged Individuals Using Home- and Community-Based Care Services: Data From the South Korea Long-Term Care Insurance Program, 2008–2013

South Korea introduced a public long-term care insurance (LTCI) program in response to its rapidly aging population. This study analyzed the association between living arrangement and caregiver type with institutionalization in LTCI grade 1 (very severe limitations), 2 (severe limitations), and 3 (moderate limitations) beneficiaries using data from the LTCI cohort, 2008 to 2013. The dependent variable was alteration status from home to institutional care within 1 year of receiving home service. Independent variables were living arrangement and primary caregiver type. The analysis was conducted using the generalized estimating equation model. Higher likelihoods of institutionalization were found in individuals living with a non-family member compared to individuals living with their spouses. Individuals without a caregiver or with a paid caregiver were also more likely to experience institutionalization than individuals with a spouse primary caregiver. Our findings underscore the importance of monitoring identified vulnerable groups of individuals to attain LTCI sustainability and enhance elderly quality of life.     

Adaptive LASSO for linear regression models with ARMA-GARCH errors

The linear regression models with the autoregressive moving average (ARMA) errors (REGARMA models) are often considered, in order to reflect a serial correlation among observations. In this article, we focus on an adaptive least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) (ALASSO) method for the variable selection of the REGARMA models and extend it to the linear regression models with the ARMA-generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARMA-GARCH) errors (REGARMA-GARCH models). This attempt is an extension of the existing ALASSO method for the linear regression models with the AR errors (REGAR models) proposed by Wang et al. in 2007 Wang, H., Li, G., Tsai, C. (2007). Regression coefficient and autoregressive order shrinkage and selection via the lasso. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series B 69:63–78. [Google Scholar]. New ALASSO algorithms are proposed to determine important predictors for the REGARMA and REGARMA-GARCH models. Finally, we provide the simulation results and real data analysis to illustrate our findings.     

Carabid beetles in green infrastructures: the importance of management practices for improving the biodiversity in a metropolitan city

Green infrastructure in urbanized areas has a dual purpose that achieves both sociological and ecological goals. To benefit society and the urban ecosystem, green infrastructure should be effectively managed. We investigated carabid diversity and assemblage structure as indicators of biodiversity in green infrastructures in a rapidly developing urban area to identify the habitat’s values. In addition, we attempted to reveal the effect of environmental variables (e.g., vegetation structure, soil, and disturbance) that strongly contribute to carabid diversity and assemblage structure. Of the collected organisms, 6,154 individuals representing 20 carabid species were identified in the green infrastructure. Those species with flight ability and that were found in dry habitats were widely distributed and dominated green infrastructures. Carabid assemblages changed significantly in response to management practices. These changes were both positive and negative, with the negative changes increasing the instability of the carabid assemblages through the destruction of their habitat. Other factors, such as the presence of original habitat, habitat age, and habitat succession, also had a considerable effect on carabid diversity. We revealed that management practices prevented habitat succession, and these interactive effects determined carabid diversity and structure in green infrastructures.     

Droit aux congés et conciliation entre travail et vie familiale dans les pays développés: pourquoi les travailleurs des Etats‐Unis sont perdants

A partir d'un indice synthétique des dispositions réglementaires sur les congés annuels et familiaux en Europe occidentale, aux Etats‐Unis, au Canada, en Australie, au Japon et en Corée, les auteurs classent ces pays quant au soutien à l'équilibre entre travail et famille. Les Etats‐Unis arrivent derniers: les employeurs ne sont pas tenus d'accorder des congés annuels, et les salariés ne peuvent prendre plus de douze semaines de congés par an pour raisons familiales. Ces normes comparativement basses s'expliqueraient par une conception fondée sur le libre marché et un postulat d'égalité de rapport de forces entre employeur et salarié. Vision qui n'est pleinement partagée par aucune des autres démocraties examinées.     

Non-informative priors for the common mean in the one-way random effects model with heterogeneous error variances

The paper develops some objective priors for the common mean in the one-way random effects model with heterogeneous error variances. We derive the first and second order matching priors and reference priors. It turns out that the second order matching prior matches the alternative coverage probabilities up to the second order, and is also an HPD matching prior. However, derived reference priors just satisfy a first order matching criterion. Our simulation studies indicate that the second order matching prior performs better than the reference prior and the Jeffreys prior in terms of matching the target coverage probabilities in a frequentist sense. We also illustrate our results using real data.