Welfare rankings of income distributions: A rôle for the variance and some insights for tax reform

When generalized Lorenz curves cross, it is not possible to rank the underlying income distributions by the unanimous preference of all additively separable symmetric inequality-averse social welfare functions. But in many cases, unanimous preference results in terms of inequality-aversion are nevertheless available. When generalized Lorenz curves cross once, variance is decisive in determining a robust welfare ranking, and can provide a rationale for choosing equity over efficiency where these two desiderata conflict. Welfare recommendations for certain types of income tax reform are implied, including cases of yield-increasing redistribution.This paper has benefitted considerably from the perceptive comments of an anonymous referee. Valentino Dardanoni gratefully acknowledges financial assistance from the Banco di Sicilia and the Ente Luigi Einaudi of Rome.     

Tests of homogeneity of intercepts after a preliminary test

For the multl-sample regression model , the problem of testing equality of intercepts following a preliminarytest on the equality o f slopes is considered. The t e s t s are based on the conventional least squares estimators (without necessarily assuming the normality of the underlying error distributions ) , and the impact of a

preliminary test on the asymptotic size and power of the final test is studied.     

Barriers to girls' education in Mozambique at household and community levels: an exploratory study

Although education of children is universally accepted as a leading mechanism of poverty eradication and social development, many developing nations continue to struggle in achieving gender parity in primary and secondary education. While Mozambique has recently accelerated its efforts to reduce this gap, girls are still enrolled and attending school at a much lower rate than boys. The present study explored the barriers to children's – especially girls' – education in central Mozambique, based on information on 738 children in two separate communities. Household, child, environmental, and social/cultural factors are examined in the context of global and regional data. The study found girls to be impacted more negatively by every correlating factor, including the lingering practice, in rural areas, of early marriage. Policy and research implications are discussed.     

Pluralistic ignorance and Hooking up

“Hooking up “—when two people agree to engage in sexual behavior for which there is no future commitment—has become popular on college campuses. In this study we examined the extent to which pluralistic ignorance affects hooking up. One hundred thirty‐six female and 128 male college students answered questions regarding their own comfort and their perceived peers'comfort in engaging in a variety of sexual behaviors while hooking up. We hypothesized and found that both women and men rated their peers as being more comfortable engaging in these behaviors than they rated themselves. Men expressed more comfort than did women in engaging in these behaviors, and both sexes overestimated the other gender's comfort with hooking up behaviors. Pluralistic ignorance appears to apply to hooking up on college campuses, and we explore some potential consequences of pluralistic ignorance in this context.