A fair solution to the compensation problem

We deal with a fair division model concerning compensation among individuals endowed with different, non transferable, personal talents. We construct social orderings over all conceivable allocations based on efficiency, fairness, and robustness properties. Relying on orderings gives us the possibility of deriving the appropriate public policy even if incentive constraints arise.     

Forecasting Spanish Natural Life Expectancy

Knowledge of trends in life expectancy is of major importance for policy planning. It is also a key indicator for assessing future development of life insurance products, substantiality of existing retirement schemes, and long-term care for the elderly. This article examines the feasibility of decomposing age-gender-specific accidental and natural mortality rates. We study this decomposition by using the Lee and Carter model. In particular, we fit the Poisson log-bilinear version of this model proposed by Wilmoth and Brouhns et al. to historical (1975-1998) Spanish mortality rates. In addition, by using the model introduced by Wilmoth and Valkonen we analyze mortality-gender differentials for accidental and natural rates. We present aggregated life expectancy forecasts compared with those constructed using nondecomposed mortality rates.     

Philanthropy by Decree

This article investigates the relationship among nonprofit foundations’ choice of philanthropic strategy (expressive, receptive, proactive, and collaborative) and sound governance, as measured by board capital (competencies and networks), board processes (planning, control, evaluation, and so on), and chairman power (entrenchment and tenure). Using a sample of fifty‐one Italian foundations of banking origins, this article shows that high levels of board capital, complete board processes, and chairman long tenure are positively associated with proactive and collaborative philanthropic strategies.     

The social stratification of time use patterns

Time use is both a cause of social inequality and a consequence of social inequality. However, how social class stratifies time use patterns is seldom studied. In this paper, I describe the time use patterns in the years 1983 and 2015 by social class, and gender in the British context. Using sequence analysis methods, I show how the diversity of time use patterns in British society is socially stratified. I find that 13 clusters capture the heterogeneity of time use patterns and that these clusters are associated with social class, gender, and day of the week. These clusters capture patterns of paid and unpaid work schedules, as well as leisure patterns. The results show that men have experienced a reduction of the standard Monday to Friday 8-hr working day, while women have experienced a general increase in this type of schedule. On the other hand, patterns of domestic working days have reduced for women and increased for men. Important differences exist in paid and unpaid work patterns between social classes. Working-class women have experienced an important increase in shift work on weekends. They are also much more likely to be doing unpaid work on weekdays compared to upper-class and middle-class women. Working-class men are more likely to experience non-working days and leisure days on both weekdays and weekends and are more likely to be doing shift work. They are also more often doing unpaid work on weekdays compared to men in upper-class households. Patterns of childcare indicate that all families have increased their childcare time. Men in upper-class households in particular have experienced an important growth in childcare time between 1983 and 2015. I conclude by discussing how time use can further our understanding of social stratification.     

CORPORATE DOWNSIZING TO REBUILD TEAM SPIRIT: HOW COSTLY VOTING CAN FOSTER COOPERATION

We propose a new mechanism to achieve coordination through voting, for which we discuss a number of real‐life applications. Among them, the mechanism provides for a new theory for downsizing in organizations. A crisis may lead to a decrease in the willingness to cooperate in an organization, and therefore to a bad equilibrium. A consensual downsizing episode may signal credibly that survivors are willing to cooperate, and thus, it may be optimal and efficiency‐enhancing (for the individuals remaining in the organization), as the empirical evidence suggests. A variation of the same mechanism leads to “efficient” upsizing. (JEL: C70, D70, M50)     

Can good news lead to a more pessimistic choice of action?

Adapting a definition introduced by Milgrom (1981) we say that a signal about the environment is good news relative to some initial beliefs if the posterior beliefs dominate the initial beliefs in the sense of first-order stochastic dominance (the assumption being that higher values of the parameter representing the environment mean better environments). We give an example where good news leads to the adoption of a more pessimistic course of action (we say that action a ₁, reveals greater pessimism than action a ₂, if it gives higher payoff in bad environments and lower payoff in good environments). We then give sufficient conditions for a signal not to induce a more pessimistic choice of action.A first version of this paper was written when the author was Heyworth Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, and presented at the Second Annual Congress of the European Economic Association (Copenhagen, August 1987). The author is grateful to an anonymous referee for helpful comments.     

Efficient computation of location depth contours by methods of computational geometry

The concept of location depth was introduced as a way to extend the univariate notion of ranking to a bivariate configuration of data points. It has been used successfully for robust estimation, hypothesis testing, and graphical display. The depth contours form a collection of nested polygons, and the center of the deepest contour is called the Tukey median. The only available implemented algorithms for the depth contours and the Tukey median are slow, which limits their usefulness. In this paper we describe an optimal algorithm which computes all bivariate depth contours in O(n ²) time and space, using topological sweep of the dual arrangement of lines. Once these contours are known, the location depth of any point can be computed in O(log² n) time with no additional preprocessing or in O(log n) time after O(n ²) preprocessing. We provide fast implementations of these algorithms to allow their use in everyday statistical practice.     

Rational beliefs in extensive games

Given an extensive game, with every node x and every player i a subset k _i (x) of the set of terminal nodes is associated, and is given the interpretation of player i's knowledge (or information) at node x. A belief of player i is a function that associates with every node x an element of the set K _i (x). A belief system is an n-tuple of beliefs, one for each player. A belief system is rational if it satisfies some natural consistency properties. The main result of the paper is that the notion of rational belief system gives rise to a refinement of the notion of subgame-perfect equilibrium.     

Core/periphery scientific collaboration networks among very similar researchers

Empirical studies such as Goyal et al. (J Polit Econ 114(2):403–412, 2006) or Newman (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101(Suppl. 1):5200–5205, 2004) show that scientific collaboration networks present a highly unequal and hierarchical distribution of links. This implies that some researchers can be much more active and productive than others and, consequently, they can enjoy a much better scientific reputation. One may think that big intrinsical differences among researchers can constitute the main driving force behind these inequalities. Nevertheless, this model shows that, under specific circumstances, very similar individuals may self-organize themselves forming unequal and hierarchical structures.