Digit ratios (2D:4D) as predictors of risky decision making for both sexes

Many important decisions involve financial risk, and substantial evidence suggests that women tend to be more risk averse than men. We explore a potential biological basis of risk-taking variation within and between the sexes by studying how the ratio between the length of the second and fourth fingers (2D:4D) predicts risk-taking. A smaller 2D:4D ratio has been linked to higher exposure to prenatal testosterone relative to estradiol, with men having lower ratios than women. In financially motivated decision-making tasks, we find that men and women with smaller 2D:4D ratios chose significantly riskier options. We further find that the ratio partially explains the variation in risk-taking between the sexes. Moreover, for men and women at the extremes of the digit-ratio distribution the difference in risk-taking disappears. Thus, the 2D:4D ratio partially explains variation in financial risk-taking behavior within and between sexes and offers evidence of a biological basis for risk-taking behavior.     

A Diamond-Stiglitz approach to the demand for self-protection

The existing research concerning the relationship between risk aversion and prudence and the demand for self-protection assumes that the loss variable follows a Bernoulli distribution, and that changes in the level of self-protection are mean preserving. The analysis here replaces these two very strong conditions with ones which are more general. When doing this, the method of analysis is also significantly modified. This modification includes representing a change in the level of self-protection using the procedure developed by Diamond and Stiglitz (Journal of Economic Theory 8:337-360, 1974) for representing a change in risk. This alternate representation allows the existing findings to be generalized considerably, and also simplifies the analysis.     

Two-sided intergenerational moral hazard,long-term care insurance,and nursing home use

Two-sided intergenerational moral hazard occurs (i) if the parent’s decision to purchase long-term care (LTC) coverage undermines the child’s incentive to exert effort because the insurance protects the bequest from the cost of nursing home care, and (ii) when the parent purchases less LTC coverage, relying on child’s effort to keep him out of the nursing home. However, a “net” moral hazard effect obtains only if the two players’ responses to exogenous shocks fail to neutralize each other, entailing a negative relationship between child’s effort and parental LTC coverage. We focus on outcomes out of equilibrium, interpreting them as a break in the relationship resulting in no informal care provided and hence high probability nursing home admission. Changes in the parent’s initial wealth, LTC subsidy received, and child’s expected inheritance are shown to induce “net” moral hazard, in contradistinction to changes in child’s opportunity cost and share in the bequest.     

“三统一”与广东公众参与的制度创新实践

公众参与是社会主义民主政治建设的题中之意。坚持把党的领导、人民当家作主、依法治国三者有机统一于社会主义民主政治建设的实践,以有效的制度满足公众参与的需求问题,是加强社会主义政治文明建设的需要。改革开放以来,广东一如既往地发挥了示范区作用,在公众参与制度建设上做出了卓有成效的创新实践。     

弘扬反官僚主义传统,努力改进新时期党政机关工作作风

学习贯彻落实党的十七届四中全会精神,坚决反对和消除官僚主义。官僚主义是党和政府的领导机关和领导干部最容易犯的政治疑难病,是当前工作作风方面存在的突出问题之一,是我党多年来着力铲除的一个毒瘤。反官僚主义是党执政兴国的重大政治任务,也是党的一贯传统。为了更好地学习实践科学发展观,推动我国全面建设小康社会的进步,必须努力克服官僚主义,切实改进新时期党和政府机关的工作作风。     

近代甘肃工商业发展的困境浅析

近代甘肃经济社会落后与工商业不发达有密切的关系.分析这一问题,就会发现在特定的历史背景下甘肃工商业发展的内外条件十分不利,在经济、政治、社会、生态各方面所遭遇的发展困境具体表现：缺乏人才、技术和市场;战乱给工商业的生存发展造成极大破坏;政治的腐败与各种苛捐杂税使企业难以生存;省内度量衡不统一;兵匪横行,国外商品的冲击,自然灾害也产生了明显的束缚作用.     

林产品加工 阜新长青产业

<正>十月,辽西大地已是遍地金黄的一派丰收景象,然而位于彰武县境内的阜新林产品加工基地却因接连而至的大事、喜事而显得红红火火,生机盎然。这个被阜新人称之为长青产业的基地,更是在这个收获的季节里收获了成长。     

Data skeletons: simultaneous estimation of multiple quantiles for massive streaming datasets with applications to density estimation

We consider the problem of density estimation when the data is in the form of a continuous stream with no fixed length. In this setting, implementations of the usual methods of density estimation such as kernel density estimation are problematic. We propose a method of density estimation for massive datasets that is based upon taking the derivative of a smooth curve that has been fit through a set of quantile estimates. To achieve this, a low-storage, single-pass, sequential method is proposed for simultaneous estimation of multiple quantiles for massive datasets that form the basis of this method of density estimation. For comparison, we also consider a sequential kernel density estimator. The proposed methods are shown through simulation study to perform well and to have several distinct advantages over existing methods.     

A multivariate version of Gini's rank association coefficient

In this paper, we introduce a multivariate generalization of the population version of Gini's rank association coefficient, giving a response to this open question posed in [4]. We also study some properties of this version, present the corresponding results for the sample statistic, and provide several examples.     

Acceleration of the Multiple-Try Metropolis algorithm using antithetic and stratified sampling

The Multiple-Try Metropolis is a recent extension of the Metropolis algorithm in which the next state of the chain is selected among a set of proposals. We propose a modification of the Multiple-Try Metropolis algorithm which allows for the use of correlated proposals, particularly antithetic and stratified proposals. The method is particularly useful for random walk Metropolis in high dimensional spaces and can be used easily when the proposal distribution is Gaussian. We explore the use of quasi Monte Carlo (QMC) methods to generate highly stratified samples. A series of examples is presented to evaluate the potential of the method.