Amalek as Other, Other as Amalek: Interpreting a Violent Biblical Narrative

This article, which takes the form of an analysis of Jewish portrayals of Amalek, suggests that the process of othering often consists of two stages. Throughout the ages, Amalek, the primary other in the Jewish tradition, has been depicted as the apogee of both physical and spiritual evil. Both these images are often projected onto other individuals and groups who are considered to be a threat to the continued existence of the Jewish people. These secondary others include external enemies (the gentile other), coreligionists (the Jewish other), and the evil inclination that exists within every Jew (the other self). In each case, however, the aim of the secondary othering is the same: to stigmatize existing foes by comparing them to the archenemy of the Jewish people.     

IMPROVING THE MEAN-VARIANCE CRITERION USING STOCHASTIC DOMINANCE

The increased importance of the nonnormal stable Paretian distributions necessitates the development of an investment criterion which does not depend upon the mean and variance. This paper develops a criterion based upon the location and scale parameters of a probability distribution. The rationale of the criterion is established using stochastic dominance orderings of probability distributions. The paper also presents estimators for the location and scale parameters.     

A Quantal Choice Model for the Detection of Copying on Multiple Choice Examinations

It is difficult to devise a statistical test to detect one student copying from another. Many prior efforts falsely accuse students of cheating. A general methodology based on the quantal choice model of decision theory overcomes these problems. Three steps are involved: (1) for each item estimate the probability and the variance that a given respondent will select each response, (2) for pairs of respondents, these probabilities determine the expected number of matches, and (3) compare the critical value to the number of items matched. Methods differ based on the probability estimation technique. Four methods (simple frequencies, Frary, Tideman, and Watts modification [8], logit, and multinomial probit) are compared on theoretical and empirical grounds. Theory and results show that it is crucial to incorporate the variance of the probability estimates. The probit model has theoretical advantages over the other methods and produces more accurate results.     

Understanding the effects of siblings on child mortality: evidence from India

Given the intrinsically sequential nature of childbirth, timing of a child’s birth has consequences not only for itself but also for its older and younger siblings. The paper argues that prior spacing and posterior spacing between consecutive siblings are thus important measures of intensity of sibling competition for limited parental resources. While the available estimates of child mortality tend to ignore the endogeneity of sibling composition, we use a correlated recursive model of prior and posterior spacing and child mortality to correct it. There is evidence that uncorrected estimates under-estimate the effects of prior and posterior spacing on child mortality.

Health Care Reform and the Behavioral Health Workforce

Health care reform will increase the number of individuals who have access to substance abuse services. This impending influx of consumers has the potential of overwhelming the service capacity of providers within the field. Provisions included in the reform legislation might fall short of their intended goal to expand the number of service providers needed to deliver services. This article discusses unmet treatment need in the United States, the current numbers of service providers, and provisions within the reform legislation to increase the labor force. Recommendations are set forth that could help expand the number of providers in the field.