Spain’s Persistent Negative Educational Gradient in Fertility

European Journal of Population - A trend towards a reversal of the negative educational gradient in fertility has been detected in some advanced societies, although the end of this inverse...     

SOCIAL HIERARCHIES: A LABORATORY STUDY ON PUNISHMENT PATTERNS ACROSS NETWORKS

We experimentally study punishment patterns across network structures, and their effect on cooperation. In a repeated public goods setting, subjects can only observe and punish their neighbors. Centralized structures (like the star network) outperform other incomplete networks and reach contribution levels like the ones observed in a complete network. Our results suggest that hierarchical network structures with a commonly observed player benefit more from sanctions not because central players punish more, but because they follow, and promote, different punishment patterns. While quasi-central players in other incomplete architectures (like the line network) retaliate, and get trapped in the vicious circle of antisocial punishment, central players in the star network do not punish back, increase their contributions when sanctioned by peripheral players, and sanction other participants in a prosocial manner. Our results illustrate recent field studies on the evolutionary prevalence of hierarchical networks. We document a network-based rationale for this positive effect in an identity-free, fully anonymous environment. (JEL C72, C91, C92, D90, H41)     

When implicit prejudice does not predict explicit prejudice: Spanish version of the Concern with Acting Prejudiced scale / Cuando el prejuicio implícito no predice el explícito: versión española de la escala Concern with Acting Prejudiced

The aim of this research was to adapt and validate the Concern with Acting Prejudiced (CAP) scale for a Spanish sample. This measure evaluates concern about appearing prejudiced to others or oneself and the motivation not to deviate from personal egalitarian standards. First, we completed the translation and an item content validity analysis. Then, in Study 1 (N = 198), we conducted an exploratory factor analysis. In Study 2 (N = 383), we conducted a confirmatory analysis of the unifactorial structure of the Spanish version of the scale and examined its validity. In Study 3 (N = 89), we explored the moderating role of participants’ concern with acting prejudiced in the relation between implicit prejudice and explicit prejudice. The results confirmed the unifactorial structure of the scale, its appropriate psychometric properties and its predictive validity. Moreover, we confirmed that the CAP moderated the relation between implicit and explicit prejudice. In participants with a low concern with acting prejudiced, implicit prejudice was positively related with modern prejudice; in participants with a high concern with acting prejudiced, these variables were not related.     

Training Intraverbal Naming to Establish Matching-to-Sample Performances

The current study evaluated whether training intraverbal naming would be sufficient to establish visual-visual matching-to-sample (MTS) performances in college students. In the first experiment, we used a multiple-probe design across stimulus sets to assess whether six participants could match arbitrary visual stimuli (AB) after learning to tact their two experimentally defined classes (A’ and B’) and then intraverbally relate their names (i.e., “A’ goes with B’”). All participants matched the stimuli accurately after training, as well as emitted the trained intraverbals. In the second experiment, we used a multiple baseline design across four participants to assess whether the same training would produce bi-directional intraverbals in the form of “B’ goes with A’,” and MTS performance consistent with symmetry (BA). All participants responded accurately during matching and intraverbal tests. Across both experiments, participants stated the trained intraverbals while performing the matching task. Results showed that MTS performance can be established solely by verbal behavior training.     

Present and prospective health status of older adults in the Philippines: The role of education

Utilizing current information to project prospective ill health prevalence can help prepare the country to ensure the well-being of older people. The prevalence of ill health in terms of physical, psychological, and cognitive health dimensions was estimated by age, sex, and education attainment level using the 2018 Longitudinal Study on Aging and Health in the Philippines. Subsequently, the said rates were integrated into population projection estimates from 2020 to 2080. It was observed that the depression prevalence rate among older people was highest at above 40%, while physical and cognitive limitations were at around 18% and 22% respectively. It was also found that prevalence rates of ill health increased with age and that ill health was more prevalent among women than men, particularly at more advanced ages. The use of population projections has shown that education differentials in the analyses estimate lower prevalence rates of ill health for both sexes. The findings provide estimates for the prospective care needs of the older population in the Philippines. It was also suggested that education may possibly have preventive effects on ill health. Utilizing present information in order to prepare for issues can be beneficial for securing the well-being of older adults.     

The Capacity of Community‐Based Organizations to Lead Local Innovations in Welfare Reform: Early Findings from Texas

Community‐based organizations (CBOs) are now cast among the lead actors in welfare reform. But do they have adequate capacity to perform this critical leadership function? Early findings from fifteen state‐funded projects in Texas show that state planners must carefully assess the capacity of a CBO to initiate and sustain an innovation at the local level. The authors examine six organizational variables that predict success or failure: goals, management, technology, funding, community involvement, and performance.     

Characterizing best–worst voting systems in the scoring context

An increasing body of theoretical and empirical work on discrete choice considers a choice design in which a person is asked to select both the best and the worst alternative in an available set of alternatives, in contrast to more traditional tasks, such as where the person is asked to: select the best alternative; select the worst alternative; rank the alternatives. Here we consider voting systems motivated by such “best–worst” choice; characterize a class of “best–worst” voting systems in terms of a set of axioms in the context of scoring rules; and discuss briefly possible extensions to approval–disapproval systems.     

Dopamine and risk choices in different domains: Findings among serious tournament bridge players

We explore how risk-taking in the card game contract bridge, and in a financial gamble, correlate with variation in the dopamine receptor D4 gene (DRD4) among serious tournament bridge players. In bridge risk-taking, we find significant interactions between genetic predisposition and skill. Among men with the 7-repeat allele of DRD4, namely 7R + men, those with more bridge skill take more good risks and fewer bad risks, while the opposite is found for less-expert 7R + men. Conversely, skill does not predict risk-taking among men without the 7R + allele. Consistent with some prior studies, we also find that 7R + men take more risk in the financial gamble. We find no relationship between 7R + and either risk measure among our female subjects. Our results suggest that the dopamine system plays an important role in individual differences in risk-taking among men, and is the first to distinguish between advantageous and disadvantageous risk-taking.     

Analysis of adaptive directional stratification for the controlled estimation of rare event probabilities

In the context of structural reliability, a small probability to be assessed, a high computational time model and a relatively large input dimension are typical constraints which brought together lead to an interesting challenge. Indeed, in this framework many existing stochastic methods fail in estimating the failure probability with robustness.