Variance decompositions of nonlinear time series using stochastic simulation and sensitivity analysis

In this paper, A variance decomposition approach to quantify the effects of endogenous and exogenous variables for nonlinear time series models is developed. This decomposition is taken temporally with respect to the source of variation. The methodology uses Monte Carlo methods to affect the variance decomposition using the ANOVA-like procedures proposed in Archer et al. (J. Stat. Comput. Simul. 58:99–120, 1997), Sobol’ (Math. Model. 2:112–118, 1990). The results of this paper can be used in investment problems, biomathematics and control theory, where nonlinear time series with multiple inputs are encountered.     

Hiding Customer Complaints: Studying the Motivations and Forms of Service Employees' Complaint Concealment Behaviours

This study aims to explore both how and why customer service employees conceal the complaints made by customers. Using an exploratory qualitative approach, data were gathered through the in‐depth interviewing of 25 managers, 25 supervisors and 57 front‐line employees of UK general retailers/supermarkets. Data analysis reveals that the concealment of customer complaints by store employees of all hierarchical levels is common. Front‐line, customer‐contact employees were found to conceal complaints in four ways: through (1) misleading customers, (2) complaint resolution without logging, (3) concealing recorded complaints and (4) falsification of recorded complaints. Store‐level supervisory and managerial employees were also found to conceal complaints in four ways: through (1) complaint resolution without logging, (2) concealing recorded complaints, (3) the non‐recording of complaints and (4) the disregarding of ‘minor’ complaints. The motives for complaint concealment differed between managerial/supervisory and front‐line employees but included reasons of (1) personal protection, (2) perceived customer unpleasantness, (3) serial complaint avoidance, (4) alienation, (5) friends or family protection, (6) instrumental gain, (7) avoidance of additional work, (8) perceived unfairness and (9) limited time. These findings suggest that theorists and practitioners need to acknowledge the existence and prevalence of these motives and behaviours and incorporate them into their conceptualizations and practices.     

Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Scales Measuring Trust,and Control-Self-efficacy of Young Iranian Women

This study is among the first to assess Trust and Control-Self-efficacy scales as measures of cognitive social capital in transitional societies such as Iran. 391 Iranian young women aged between 18 and 35 years (M 27.3, SD 4.8) were recruited at ten sites in the city of Shiraz by cluster convenience sampling to participate in this cross-sectional study. The measures used included “Trust” and “Control-Self-efficacy” scales adapted from the British General Household Survey social capital survey. Confirmatory factor analysis with Structural Equation Modelling was used to assess the model adequacy. In addition, reliability and validity of the model was measured. After assessing all possible models to yield the best fit for the data, the “Trust” scale model represents a change of structure from three subscales to four subscales which provided a best fit with the data (χ² = 2.231, RMSEA = 0.056). While for “Control-Self-efficacy” scale with three subscales, five items were deleted in order to have a fit model (χ² = 2.128, RMSEA = 0.054). As a result, the collective evidence suggested that the instrument includes relevant items for its target population and can be a reliable and valid measure for the population of interest.

     

Behavioral insurance: Theory and experiments

“Risk and insurance” provides an illustrative set of decisions made in the presence of uncertainty. As behavioral models become more integrated into economics and finance, many of their effects are illustrated quite well within insurance markets. Especially noteworthy are the complementary roles of theory and experiments. This article reviews the interactive role of experiments and theory in analyzing insurance demand from a behavioral perspective. We pay special attention to several models of underinvestment in insurance or in other risk-mitigation markets.     

Consanguineous Marriage in Turkish Families in Turkey and in Western Europe

The paper compares the prevalence and development of consanguineous marriages between Turkish migrants in Western Europe and stayers from the same regions of origin in Turkey. Analyses draw from three‐generational family data of the 2000 Families study. Findings suggest a decline of kin marriage over generations and time in both groups, but a higher prevalence of kin marriage among migrants. Parental impact was influential, but effects of transmission were lower among migrants. Kin marriage was strongly linked with cross‐border partner choice. The results support previous findings and indicate the specific effect of migration on seemingly traditional patterns of marriage.     

Correction to: Data from the COVID-19 epidemic in Florida suggest that younger cohorts have been transmitting their infections to less socially mobile older adults

Review of Economics of the Household - An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.     

Aeromobilities’ extra-sectoral costs: a methodological reorientation

ABSTRACT

For over a decade, scholars have graced a number of aeromobilities’ socio-cultural dimensions, from being in an airport to commanding an aeroplane. Yet, while this work has heightened appreciations of the political nature of aerial worlds, the propensity has been to focus on the immediate arrangements and politics related to flight. Using civil aviation as an example, this article offers a methodological reorientation and conceptual rethink of how aeromobilities’ (re)production invokes far-reaching political economies in excess of the core activity of aerial conveyances. It seeks to open up worldly webs of iniquitous movements and relations that make aerial life – rather than flying per se – possible in the first place. Interspersing a selection of our research with extant literature, reports and statistics, the article outlines, in coincidence with our earlier findings, two ways in which civil aviation has thus incurred extensive extra-sectoral costs: the material mobilisation of resources for air infrastructures, and the mobilisation of populations and labour for aeromobile development. The discussion aims ultimately to promote a more nuanced understanding of the constituents, and costs, of moving in the present age.