Efficiency of Large Private Value Auctions

We consider discriminatory and uniform price auctions for multiple identical units of a good. Players have private values, possibly asymmetrically distributed and for multiple units. Our setting allows for aggregate uncertainty about demand and supply. In this setting, equlibria generally will be inefficient. Despite this, we show that such auctions become arbitrarily close to efficient if they are “large,” and use this to derive an asymptotic characterization of revenue and bidding behavior.     

Adolescents' and parents' affect in relation to discrepant perceptions of parental warmth in daily life

The current study aimed to evaluate how adolescents' and parents' perceptions of daily parenting—and their discrepancies—relate to daily parent and adolescent affect. Daily parental warmth and affect were assessed using electronic diaries in 150 American adolescent–parent dyads (61.3% females, M_age = 14.6, 83.3% White; 95.3% mothers, M_age = 43.4; 89.3% White) and in 80 Dutch adolescents with 79 mothers and 72 fathers (63.8% females, M_age = 15.9, 91.3% White; M_age = 49.0, 97.4% White). Results of preregistered models indicated that individuals' affect may be more important for perceptions of parenting than discrepancies between parent–adolescent reports of parenting for affect, stressing the need to be aware of this influence of affect on parenting reports in clinical and research settings.     

Longitudinal Associations Between Adolescents' Bullying‐Related Indirect Defending,Outsider Behavior,and Peer‐Group Status

During adolescence, youth become more likely to avoid involvement in witnessed bullying and less likely to support victims. It is unknown whether—and how—these bystander behaviors (i.e., outsider behavior and indirect defending) are associated with adolescents' peer‐group status (i.e., popularity and social acceptance) over time. Cross‐lagged path modeling was used to examine these longitudinal associations in a sample of 313 Dutch adolescents (M_age‐T1 = 10.3 years). The results showed that status longitudinally predicted behavior, rather than that behavior predicted status. Specifically, unpopularity predicted outsider behavior and social acceptance predicted indirect defending. These findings suggest that a positive peer‐group status can trigger adolescents' provictim stance. However, adolescents may also strategically avoid involvement in witnessed bullying to keep a low social profile.     

Sexuality in Older Adults (65+)—An Overview of The Recent Literature,Part 2: Body Image and Sexual Satisfaction

Objectives: the aim of the paper is to provide an overview of the literature published 2005-2015 on sexual satisfaction and body image in older adults. Method: A narrative literature search using the PsycINFO database was conducted. Results: Although women in general seem less satisfied with their bodies than men, particularly in sexual contexts, older women appear to be less vulnerable to body-related dissatisfaction than younger women. Despite the age-specific dynamics of sexual satisfaction and sexual well-being, which parallel age-related decrease in the frequency of sexual activity, research findings from different countries show that substantial proportions of aging men and women are satisfied with their sex life. There is some limited evidence that this proportion may be increasing across cohorts. Gender differences in factors that influence sexual satisfaction among older adults appear marginal. Conclusion: Older age can affect sexual satisfaction on individual, interpersonal, and culture-related levels. Future research in older adults' sexuality should focus on sexual well-being in women who are without partners, sexual satisfaction among aging lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals and couples, the relationship between religiosity and sexual satisfaction, and employ a comparative, cross-cultural approach.     

Integrating Household Risk Mitigation Behavior in Flood Risk Analysis: An Agent‐Based Model Approach

Recent studies showed that climate change and socioeconomic trends are expected to increase flood risks in many regions. However, in these studies, human behavior is commonly assumed to be constant, which neglects interaction and feedback loops between human and environmental systems. This neglect of human adaptation leads to a misrepresentation of flood risk. This article presents an agent‐based model that incorporates human decision making in flood risk analysis. In particular, household investments in loss‐reducing measures are examined under three economic decision models: (1) expected utility theory, which is the traditional economic model of rational agents; (2) prospect theory, which takes account of bounded rationality; and (3) a prospect theory model, which accounts for changing risk perceptions and social interactions through a process of Bayesian updating. We show that neglecting human behavior in flood risk assessment studies can result in a considerable misestimation of future flood risk, which is in our case study an overestimation of a factor two. Furthermore, we show how behavior models can support flood risk analysis under different behavioral assumptions, illustrating the need to include the dynamic adaptive human behavior of, for instance, households, insurers, and governments. The method presented here provides a solid basis for exploring human behavior and the resulting flood risk with respect to low‐probability/high‐impact risks.     

Measuring Health: A Multivariate Approach

We examined the health status of 171 countries by employing factor analysis on various national health indicators for the period 2000–2005 to construct two new measures on health. The first measure is based on the health of individuals and the second on (the quality of) the health services. Our measures differ substantially from indicators used in previous studies on health and also lead to different rankings of countries. As rankings are not that informative without further information, we analyzed the distance between each country and the sample mean. Differences between countries are much more pronounced for our measure on health services than for our measure on the health of individuals. Using cluster analysis, we classified the countries in six homogenous groups.     

Maintaining mastery despite age related losses. The resilience narratives of two older women in need of long-term community care

The aim of this article is to examine how older people mobilise sources of strength, often denoted under the concept of resilience, to maintain mastery over their lives in the context of significant threats to their function. Departing from a relational approach to resilience, we focus on how they cooperate and interact with significant others to achieve their personal goals. This is illustrated by the narratives of two older women. The concept of resilience helps us to reflect on their stories and to gain an in-depth understanding of the mediating sources of strength older people rely on when encountering the losses associated with old age. The narratives of the women show that what on the surface appears to be a similar burden to a life or function, turned out to be interpreted and responded to in a different way. Maintaining mastery in old age is a symbolic and interactional process, and a shared responsibility for older persons and their social environment. Important mediating sources of strength that turn out to influence positively one's sense of mastery include a positive perception of one's situation, openness about one's vulnerability and responsiveness to help. In order to promote older people's sense of mastery, significant others need to approach them in a positive way, by being aware of the way support is offered, by believing in their potential and strength and by allowing reciprocity in the relationship. When these conditions are fulfilled, it becomes possible to enter into a constructive dialogue and recommendations can be developed – in terms of treatment – that are consistent with the older persons' values and expectations.     

On the Compatibility of Islam and Gender Equality

Although the Muslim world is sometimes depicted as a homogeneous civilization lacking democracy and gender equality, Muslim countries show tremendous economic, political and cultural variation. In this paper, this variation is used to gain insight into the determinants of women’s labor market participation (LMP) in the Muslim world. We use data on 45 Muslim countries and apply SEM models to determine effects of modernization, democracy, cultural background, and state Islamization on women’s participation in the formal economy (absolute LMP) and on the share of women in the labor force (relative LMP). Women’s absolute LMP is higher in Muslim countries with higher levels of economic development and in the oil-exporting countries. For women’s relative LMP, practical democracy (the degree to which people actively participate in the system) takes in a key position. It has a strong positive effect on women’s relative LMP and mediates the effects of economic development (positive), formal democratic structures (positive) and state Islamization (negative) on women’s relative LMP. Results indicate that in these countries modernization may lead to empowerment of women by increasing their absolute LMP, but that for attaining gender equality the political opportunity structures is most important.     

Politicization of corporations and their environment: Corporations’ social license to operate in a polarized and mediatized society

Societies are increasingly characterized by polarization and fragmentation on a variety of socio-political issues. With the heightened social visibility of corporations, as a result of processes of mediatization, firms are pressured to engage with such social issues that are part of broader political discourses. Against the backdrop of these broad socio-political shifts, this study conceptually addresses the contribution of public relations to understanding the politicization of corporations and their environment. We argue that corporations have become inherently intertwined with their mediatized and polarized socio-political surroundings. As a result, corporations are increasingly pressured to speak out and take a stance on social issues to engage with their environment and renew their social license to operate (SLO) in a context characterized by political divides. By relying on concepts like issue arenas and corporate political advocacy, we argue that corporations can use public relations to publicly promote one ideal over another, by being guided by the corporation’s own intrinsic values and moral standpoints rather than efforts to balance competing interests of multiple stakeholders.