The Optimal Income Taxation of Couples

This paper analyzes the general nonlinear optimal income tax for couples, a multidimensional screening problem. Each couple consists of a primary earner who always participates in the labor market, but makes an hours‐of‐work choice, and a secondary earner who chooses whether or not to work. If second‐earner participation is a signal of the couple being better (worse) off, we prove that optimal tax schemes display a positive tax (subsidy) on secondary earnings and that the tax (subsidy) on secondary earnings decreases with primary earnings and converges to zero asymptotically. We present calibrated microsimulations for the United Kingdom showing that decreasing tax rates on secondary earnings is quantitatively significant and consistent with actual income tax and transfer programs.     

Change IS Possible: Reducing High-Risk Drinking Using a Collaborative Improvement Model

Abstract

Objective: To describe the adoption of public health and improvement methodologies to address college students’ high-risk drinking behaviors and to aid in prevention efforts. Participants: Members of 32 colleges and universities, content experts, and staff members of the National College Health Improvement Program (NCHIP). Methods: A 2-year learning collaborative developed by NCHIP trained individuals from 32 different college and universities in using the Plan–Do–Study–Act cycle as a method to create and implement initiatives aimed at reducing students’ high-risk drinking behaviors and related harms. Results: Participants experienced success ranging from noteworthy increases in type and amount of interventions directed at reducing high-risk drinking, to creating collaboratives across campus, the local community, and stakeholders. Challenges related to data collection and creating lasting cultural change remain. Conclusions: The use of quality improvement methodologies and creation of a national collaborative successfully effected meaningful change in high-risk drinking behaviors on college campuses.     

College students,shared decision making,and the appropriate use of antibiotics for respiratory tract infections: A systematic literature review

ABSTRACT

Objective: This systematic review examines shared decision making to promote the appropriate use of antibiotics for college students with respiratory tract infections. Participants/Methods: CINAL, Cochrane, PubMed, EBSCO, and PsycNET were searched in October 2014 using the following criteria: English language, human subjects, peer-reviewed, shared decision making for respiratory tract infections, adult patients or college students, and antibiotic use for respiratory tract infections. Twelve articles were selected for final review. Results: College students and younger, more educated, adults prefer shared decision making. Shared decision making shows promise for decreasing antibiotic use for respiratory tract infections. Education, understanding, and provider-patient communication are important to the shared decision-making process. Conclusions: Shared decision making shows promise to promote the appropriate use of antibiotics for respiratory tract infections in college students and could be considered for future studies.     

‘Hearing the Real Stories about the Issues at Hand’: Politically Active Elders Engage Bachelor in Social Work (BSW) Students in Influencing Social Policy

This article focuses on the successes and challenges experienced by a social work program offering experiential learning opportunities to bachelor in social work (BSW) students. As part of the BSW Experiential Learning (BEL) Program, policy students collaborated with politically active older adults to develop compelling letters to the editor of a newspaper and influential letters to state-level legislators concerning policies impacting older adults. Using a two-year quasi-experimental design, one section of the course paired students with older adults while the other section served as the control group. Although no significant differences were found in influencing student interest in working with older adults, students paired with older adults showed greater confidence in and learning of the content. Lessons learned from this experience and implications for future implementation will be detailed.     

Reported Peer Conflicts of Children in the United States and Indonesia

U.S. and Indonesian 9‐ to 11‐year‐old children (N=147) reported on multiple occasions conflicts that they experienced with peers. The precursors of conflict, behavior during conflict episodes, and resolutions were coded. Teacher ratings of aggression and social preference were obtained. The conflicts of children in both countries most often occurred between friends, were short, amicably settled, and solved without aggression. Indonesian children reported disengaging from conflict more often than did U.S. children, whereas U.S. children more frequently reported using negotiation. Reports of aggression during conflict were associated with U.S. and Indonesian children's teacher‐rated aggression, whereas reports of disengagement were associated with Indonesian children's teacher‐rated social preference and aggression.     

Reports of Conferences,Institutes, and Seminars

Five reports cover the 2009 Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians Conference, the COUNTER and Usage Data webinar, the 2009 Acquisitions Institute at Timberline Lodge, the 2009 North American Serials Interest Group Conference, and selected sessions of the 2009 annual conference of the American Library Association in Chicago, Illinois.     

“And Now I’m Just Different,but There’s Nothing Actually Wrong With Me”: Asexual Marginalization and Resistance

This article explores the relationship between contemporary asexual lives and compulsory sexuality, or the privileging of sexuality and the marginalizing of nonsexuality. Drawing on 30 in-depth interviews, I identify four ways the asexually identified individuals in this study saw themselves as affected by compulsory sexuality: pathologization, isolation, unwanted sex and relationship conflict, and the denial of epistemic authority. I also identify five ways these asexually identified individuals disrupted compulsory sexuality: adopting a language of difference and a capacity to describe asexuality; deemphasizing the importance of sexuality in human life; developing new types of nonsexual relationships; constituting asexuality as a sexual orientation or identity; and engaging in community building and outreach. I argue that some of these practices offer only a limited disruption of compulsory sexuality, but some of these practices pose a radical challenge to sexual norms by calling into question the widespread assumption that sexuality is a necessary part of human flourishing.