Deterministic transformations of random variables and the comparative statics of risk

In this article, a general class of deterministic transformations that can be interpreted as changes in risk are identified. This provides a fourth characterization of a Rothschild-Stiglitz increase in risk. In addition, a particular subclass of these transformations, termed simple transformations, is shown to be well suited for comparative static analyses. This subclass contains as a special case the linear transformation used so often in the literature. A theorem is presented that generalizes the known comparative static results for large as well as small changes in risk.     

Youth transitions and migration: negotiated and constrained interdependencies within and across generations

This paper, based on a longitudinal and multi-sited ethnographic study, explores the intersection between youth transitions, migration and relationships. It considers the complex ways in which rural Bolivian young people move back and forth between work and education, between home and migrant destinations as they strive to form their own household and develop new relationships, whilst continuing to maintain interdependent relations with their parents and siblings. It presents three life stories which outline the key role of relationships in shaping youth transitions and migrant trajectories. Whilst the three pathways are different, they also encompass some similar features: the complexity of deciding between school or work, the key role of migration, the importance of social networks and old/new relationships, and the impact of birth-ordered and gendered household relations. In particular the paper argues that the concept of negotiated and constrained interdependencies is a useful way of understanding the flexible and opportunistic yet limited nature of youth transitions in a context of migration. The paper is based on fieldwork which involved tracking down 14 of the 18 households who had been involved in my doctoral research over 10 years ago, and of these 14 households one or both parents and two or three of the siblings were interviewed.     

Risk and risk aversion effects in contests with contingent payments

Contests by their very nature involve risk, winning and losing are both possible, and the gain from winning can itself be uncertain. The participants in a contest use resources to increase their chance of winning. The main focus of this analysis is on the effects of risk aversion and risk in contests where only winners pay for resources used to compete. When payment is contingent on winning, the effect of risk aversion is in the opposite direction of what occurs when costs are paid by both winners and losers. A number of contests observed in the marketplace that exhibit this contingent payment property are discussed.     

The Use of Instructive Feedback to Promote Emergent Tact and Intraverbal Control: A Replication

Instructive feedback (IF) involves incorporating additional acquisition targets into skill-acquisition programs. A recent study by Frampton and Shillingsburg (2020) found that IF led to emergent verbal operants with two elementary-aged children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The current study replicated Frampton and Shillingsburg with two children with ASD. Therapists conducted sessions of mastered listener-by-name trials (e.g., “Show me otter,” with pictures of otter, dog, and elephant) with IF statements for features of the target stimuli (e.g., “It lives in rivers.”) embedded during the consequence portion of the trial. We evaluated the acquisition of secondary targets and emergent responses using a concurrent multiple baseline across sets design. We observed increased correct responding for secondary targets and emergent responses for all three sets of stimuli with one participant. The other participant emitted correct responses for secondary targets and emergent operants with the first set but not with the other two sets of stimuli. Results suggested that IF can lead to emergent verbal operants, but the extent of emergence may be idiosyncratic.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40616-022-00171-y.     

Refugee protection in the region: A survey and evaluation of current trends

Protection in the region has rapidly become a favoured durable solution to refugee situations and the hallmark of all current policies. These initiatives reflect changes in humanitarian approaches that have taken place over the past decades as the focus has shifted towards the resilience of crisis-affected communities and the need to enable their self-reliance. Despite the strong logic that this change will bring about more dignified solutions, the approach is easily instrumentalized. This instrumentalization is particularly evident where resilience humanitarianism meets security-migration politics. This paper focuses on the efforts of the European Union and a number of its member states to advance so-called protection in the region. The paper reviews the characteristics of these policies, highlights a number of risks and defines some known and lesser known implications of this approach.     

Posterior consistency for the spectral density of non-Gaussian stationary time series

Various nonparametric approaches for Bayesian spectral density estimation of stationary time series have been suggested in the literature, mostly based on the Whittle likelihood approximation. A generalization of this approximation involving a nonparametric correction of a parametric likelihood has been proposed in the literature with a proof of posterior consistency for spectral density estimation in combination with the Bernstein–Dirichlet process prior for Gaussian time series. In this article, we will extend the posterior consistency result to non-Gaussian time series by employing a general consistency theorem for dependent data and misspecified models. As a special case, posterior consistency for the spectral density under the Whittle likelihood is also extended to non-Gaussian time series. Small sample properties of this approach are illustrated with several examples of non-Gaussian time series.     

Rainbow Research: Challenges and Recommendations for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) Survey Design

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - A growing number of people around the world identify, in some way, as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer...