Problem gambling: One view from the gaming industry side

An experienced lawyer for the gaming industry argues that the very appellation of compulsive gambling is misleading. Advocates of the medical model of compulsive gambling have created a strange new disease, where individuals are viewed as not responsible for their misdeeds but as solely responsible for their own cure. The fact that some individuals have problems because of gambling does not lead to the conclusion that casinos bear the ultimate legal or moral responsibility. More research and dialogue is needed; but so is the acceptance by problem gamblers and those who study and treat them that individuals have to take responsibility for their own conduct.     

Decomposition by subpopulations of the Zenga-84 inequality curve and the related index $$\zeta $$: an application to 2014 Bank of Italy survey

Statistical Methods & Applications - This paper describes an innovative procedure to decompose by subpopulations the values assumed by the Zenga-84 inequality curve Z(p). This decomposition...     

Robust estimation of dynamic fixed-effects panel data models

This paper extends an existing outlier-robust estimator of linear dynamic panel data models with fixed effects, which is based on the median ratio of two consecutive pairs of first-order differenced data. To improve its precision and robustness properties, a general procedure based on higher-order pairwise differences and their ratios is designed. The asymptotic distribution of this class of estimators is derived. Further, the breakdown point properties are obtained under contamination by independent additive outliers and by the patches of additive outliers, and are used to select the pairwise differences that do not compromise the robustness properties of the procedure. The proposed estimator is additionally compared with existing methods by means of Monte Carlo simulations.     

Social Class Differentials During Fertility Decline: England and Wales Revisited

This paper reviews the relationship between landholdings and fertility. Two dimensions of land are identified as salient for fertility behaviour: size of operational holdings and land ownership. It is suggested that these two dimensions and the resulting income streams have disparate effects on fertility. Size of holdings is assumed to have a positive influence on fertility due to the greater labour demands of larger holdings, while land ownership is posited to exert a negative long-term effect because of the increase in old-age security associated with the income returns to equity. In addition to these effects on the demand for children, landholding is also thought to influence the supply of children. A systematic review of the literature finds support for the impact of both dimensions of landholding on fertility preferences, contraceptive behaviour, the proximate determinants and fertility. Both the demand and supply of children appear to be influenced by landholdings. The observed regularities suggest the need for further research on this connection, not the abandonment of this line of inquiry.     

‘I Became a Mom’: Identity Changes in Mothers Receiving Public Assistance

ABSTRACT

This phenomenological study used individual, semistructured, face-to-face interviews to explore motherhood experiences among 15 women receiving public assistance in a large urban area on the West coast. A primary phenomenon observed was that motherhood was described as an experience of identity change, with resulting emotional, behavioral, and sense-of-self changes. Within this broad theme, two categories emerged: the experience and process of change, and consequences of change. It was concluded that motherhood may serve as an important catalyst for change in some women and that the context of poverty is essential for understanding the motherhood experience. These results suggest that interventions aimed at leveraging emerging motherhood identities may be beneficial in setting women on the path out of poverty, drug addiction, and incarceration. Future research should examine the consequences of maternal change within the specific context of the stages of change documented in the recovery process from drug addiction.     

Measuring the Behavioural Component of the S&P 500 and its Relationship to Financial Stress and Aggregated Earnings Surprises

Scholars in management and economics have shown increasing interest in isolating the behavioural dimension of market evolution. Indeed, by improving forecast accuracy and precision, this exercise would certainly help firms to anticipate economic fluctuations, thus leading to more profitable business and investment strategies. Yet, how to extract the behavioural component from real market data remains an open question. By using monthly data on the returns of the constituents of the S&P 500 index, we propose a Bayesian methodology to measure the extent to which market data conform to what is predicted by prospect theory (the behavioural perspective), relative to the (standard) subjective expected utility theory baseline. We document a significant behavioural component that reaches its peaks during recession periods and is correlated to measures of financial volatility, market sentiment and financial stress with expected sign. Moreover, the behavioural component decreases around macroeconomic corporate earnings news, while it reacts positively to the number of surprising announcements.     

Zombies and a Decaying American Ontology

What would it mean to take zombies seriously? Cultural savants have noted the rise of the zombie in American popular culture in the twenty‐first century. And many scholars have found the zombie useful as a lumbering, empty‐headed metaphor that could signify just about anything. The zombie might look like a loved ovne, but their flesh is rotting and their individualism has tragically withered away. Before I came to zombology, I was already fascinated by an American obsession with preventing the decay of the corpse through an exceptional devotion to embalming. I argue that the intersection of the new zombie‐ism, the rapid decline of embalming, and the mass trauma of 9/11 is significant. Playing with zombies along a spectrum from fright to humor allows Americans to work through not a crisis of meaning, but a crisis of being. The cult of individualism no longer needs a perfect biological body.     

Family income at the bottom and at the top: Income sources and family characteristics

Attention has recently been focused on wealth as a source of long-term economic security and on wealth ownership as a crucial aspect of the racial economic divisions in the United States. This literature, however has been concerned primarily with the wealth gap between poor and middle-class families, and between the white and black middle class. In this paper, we investigate the incomes of families at the top and bottom of the family income distribution. We examine the sources of income and the demographic characteristics of these high-income and low-income families using family level data from the 1988 to 2003 Current Population Surveys.     

Gender Performances During Labor and Birth in the Midwives Model of Care

Previous research suggests many middle-class white women attempt to maintain femininity during labor and birth. There is also evidence that women who give birth outside the medical model may engage in more gender-deviant behaviors. The current study examines women’s accounts of gender performances during birth in the midwives model of care. Participants describe themselves engaging in a number of gender-deviant behaviors, without apology or overt remorse. However, participants also describe themselves engaging in activities during labor and birth that are traditionally considered feminine, including domestic tasks, care-giving and adhering to beauty norms; some defined childbirth itself as a feminine activity. Thus, participants are not simply adhering to or defying dominant notions of femininity, but are engaging in a complex set of gender behaviors. It is argued that study participants are prioritizing certain aspects of femininity—in particular, the “good mother”—over others.