Costly and discrete communication: an experimental investigation

Language is an imperfect and coarse means of communicating information about a complex and nuanced world. We report on an experiment designed to capture this feature of communication. The messages available to the sender imperfectly describe the state of the world; however, the sender can improve communication, at a cost, by increasing the complexity or elaborateness of the message. Here the sender learns the state of the world, then sends a message to the receiver. The receiver observes the message and provides a best guess about the state. The incentives of the players are aligned in the sense that both sender and receiver are paid an amount which is increasing in the accuracy of the receiver’s guess. We find that the size of the language endogenously emerges as a function of the costs of communication. Specifically, we find that higher communication costs are associated with a smaller language. Although the equilibrium predictions do not perform well, this divergence occurs in a manner which is consistent with the experimental communication literature: overcommunication. We find that the sender’s payoffs, relative to equilibrium payoffs, are decreasing in the cost of communication. We also find that the receiver’s payoffs, relative to equilibrium payoffs, are increasing in the cost of communication. Finally, we find imperfections in coordination on the basis of the experimental labels.     

Geodesic Monte Carlo on Embedded Manifolds

Markov chain Monte Carlo methods explicitly defined on the manifold of probability distributions have recently been established. These methods are constructed from diffusions across the manifold and the solution of the equations describing geodesic flows in the Hamilton–Jacobi representation. This paper takes the differential geometric basis of Markov chain Monte Carlo further by considering methods to simulate from probability distributions that themselves are defined on a manifold, with common examples being classes of distributions describing directional statistics. Proposal mechanisms are developed based on the geodesic flows over the manifolds of support for the distributions, and illustrative examples are provided for the hypersphere and Stiefel manifold of orthonormal matrices.     

The BMI as a somatotypic measure of physique: A rejoinder to Jeremy E.C. Genovese

In 2008, Maddan, Walker and Miller promoted the use of the Body Mass Index (BMI) as a viable alternative to Sheldon's technique of somatotyping. Utilizing the BMI, Maddan Walker and Miller re-analyzed the original data from the Sheldon studies. This analysis indicated a statistically significant relationship between the two measures of somatotyping. Genovese wrote a response to this work suggesting the BMI is not a useful proxy for somatotyping individuals. We respond to Genovese's critique by providing a full explication of the Sheldon somatoype measure and an analysis of Sheldon's original data accounting for all of the different somatotypes identified. Analyses here indicate that the original somatotype measure was very subjective. Although not without flaws, the BMI provides an objective somatotype measure that is comparable, if not superior, to the measure promulgated by Sheldon.     

Gender-Specific Barriers to Self-Sufficiency among Former Supplemental Security Income Drug Addiction and Alcoholism Beneficiaries: Implications for Welfare-To-Work Programs and Services

This study examines barriers to economic self-sufficiency among a panel of 219 former Supplemental Security Income (SSI) drug addiction and alcoholism (DA&A) recipients following elimination of DA&A as an eligibility category for SSI disability benefits. Study participants were comprehensively surveyed at six measurement points following the policy change. Generalized estimating equations were used to examine full-sample and gender-specific barriers to economic self-sufficiency. Results indicate that access to transportation, age, and time are the strongest predictors of achieving self-sufficiency for both men and women leaving the welfare system. Gender-specific barriers are also identified. Future research needs to assess the generalizability of these results to other public assistance recipients.     

现代工业社会的劳动——围绕马克思劳动概念的考察

在发达工业社会中,工作形式正在发生快速的变更。按照哈特和奈格里的观点,从事物质生产的工业劳动已经被新的后工业形式的劳动所取代,这些已经不能通过马克思所阐述的以工业模式为基础的劳动理论来理解,我们需要崭新的关于“非物质的劳动”和“生态政治的生产”之概念。然而,哈特和奈格里对马克思劳动概念的批评是错误的,他们关于后工业社会劳动理论的阐述是混乱且无用的。适当地理解并且恰当地发展马克思的理论将会继续提供一种在现代世界中了解劳动本质的更为恰当的基础。     

Interethnic Romantic Relationships: Enacting Affiliative Ethnic Identities

Through in‐depth interviews with respondents who were in interethnic relationships (N = 28), the authors extended and refined a new approach to mate selection based on affiliative ethnic identities (T. Jimenez, 2010). Rather than assimilation and a breakdown of ethnic group boundaries, they found that people pursued interethnic relationships because of the ethnic differences they include. These relationships gave them access to an affiliate ethnic or multicultural identity. This perspective does not challenge but rather complements existing theories of mate selection, including the role of opportunity structures, exchange of benefits, and growing acceptance of or freedom to pursue interethnic relationships. Ethnic differences can remain central as people meet, fall in love, and marry across these differences.     

Varieties of Entrepreneurial Capitalism: The Culture of Entrepreneurship and Structural Inequalities of Work and Business Creation

As the labor market has changed over recent decades, a distinctive culture has evolved in tandem, epitomized by the innovation and dynamism of Silicon Valley. This culture of entrepreneurship celebrates autonomy and risk‐taking, legitimizes a shift toward flexible, contingent, and precarious work, and compels workers to continuously network, self‐improve, and self‐promote. This culture has helped to disseminate entrepreneurial practices to sectors of the economy traditionally characterized by stability and job security. We shed light on these changes by putting forward a new typology distinguishing between four ideal types of entrepreneurial activity: Silicon Valley entrepreneurship, Main Street entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial self‐employment. Each adopts the language and normative behaviors of the culture of entrepreneurship, but the ‘entrepreneurs’ working within these domains enjoy starkly different levels of creative and financial autonomy. Integrating scholarship on economic sociology, work and labor, cultural sociology, and critical theory, we explore the underlying dynamics of entrepreneurship that cut across institutional contexts in unexpected and sometimes contradictory ways. The conceptual understanding of entrepreneurship we put forward recognizes both entrepreneurship's relationship to past forms of business creation and its contemporary cultural influence, while also underscoring the various constraints and inequalities intrinsic to these forms of market activity.