Coalitional strategy-proof and resource-monotonic solutions for multiple assignment problems

We consider the problem of allocating indivisible objects when agents may desire to consume more than one object and monetary transfers are not possible. Each agent receives a set of objects and free disposal is allowed. We are interested in allocation rules that satisfy appealing properties from an economic and social point of view. Our main result shows that sequential dictatorships are the only efficient and coalitional strategy-proof solutions to the multiple assignment problem. Adding resource-monotonicity narrows this class down to serial dictatorships.We thank Francois Maniquet, two anonymous referees, and the participants of the GREBE-FRANCQUI Summer School on Axiomatic Resource Allocation Theory, held in Namur, Belgium, for their comments.     

Prek?rer Wohlstand und nachhaltiger Konsum

The article addresses a question that so far has been neglected in environmental sociology: How do social vulnerabilities and precarious situations affect opportunities for sustainable consumption? Firstly, I will show that both the sociology of inequality and environmental sociology have hardly made any systematic attempt to clarify the relation between the physical environment and social inequality. Subsequently, I will distinguish different dimensions in the physical use of the environment and ask whether and to what extent they are relevant to social inequality. I will then demonstrate that private households are the appropriate focus of research for a promising sociology of inequality approach to the distributive issues involved in using the environment. Finally, I propose that environmental research on sustainable consumption pay greater attention to the findings from recent research on precarization.     

Moving Beyond Housing: Service Implications for Veterans Entering Permanent Supportive Housing

As a result of efforts to end homelessness among U.S. veterans, more former service members are entering permanent supportive housing (PSH). While PSH has been successfully used to house homeless veterans, more research is needed about services beyond housing placement and retention. This study uses the Gelberg–Andersen behavioral model for vulnerable populations to determine associations between predisposing, enabling, and need characteristics and recent service use (i.e., services to satisfy basic needs, occupational development, financial, healthcare, mental health) among unaccompanied homeless veterans (N?=?126) entering PSH in Los Angeles. Among the significant findings, as indicated using univariable logistic regression models, were veterans who had incarceration histories were more likely to utilize basic needs services, compared to those without incarceration histories. Veterans who received an honorable discharge were more likely to utilize occupational development services, compared to veterans with other discharge statuses. Veterans who had a case manager were more likely to utilize mental health services than those without a case manager, while those who received social security were less likely to utilize mental health services compared to veterans who did not receive social security. Veterans who met criteria for a psychological disability and veterans who met criteria for probable PTSD were more likely to use basic needs services and mental health services than veterans who fell below these thresholds. Clinical implications for social workers including “equal access to services,” “enhancing economic stability,” “providing safe and affordable housing with trauma-informed services,” and “training service social workers to deliver well-informed linkages and services” are discussed.     

Demographic dynamics and long-run development: insights for the secular stagnation debate

This paper takes a global, long-run perspective on the recent debate about secular stagnation, which has so far mainly focused on the short term. The analysis is motivated by observing the interplay between the economic and demographic transition that has occurred in the developed world over the past 150 years. To the extent that high growth rates in the past have partly been the consequence of singular changes during the economic and demographic transition, growth is likely to become more moderate once the transition is completed. At the same time, a similar transition is on its way in most developing countries, with profound consequences for the development prospects in these countries, but also for global comparative development. The evidence presented here suggests that long-run demographic dynamics have potentially important implications for the prospects of human and physical capital accumulation, the evolution of productivity, and the question of secular stagnation.     

Consistent judgement aggregation: the truth-functional case

Generalizing the celebrated “discursive dilemma”, we analyze judgement aggregation problems in which a group of agents independently votes on a set of complex propositions (the “conclusions”) and on a set of “premises” by which the conclusions are truth-functionally determined. We show that for conclusion- and premise-based aggregation rules to be mutually consistent, the aggregation must always be “oligarchic”, that is: unanimous within a subset of agents, and typically even be dictatorial. We characterize exactly when consistent non-dictatorial (or anonymous) aggregation rules exist, allowing for arbitrary conclusions and arbitrary interdependencies among premises.     

The validity of subjective information as a formal concept applied to empirical analysis

Theoretical concepts which may be applicated in formalized contexts as well as by empirical research are relatively rare. The concepts of subjective information used in cybernetically oriented pedagogists (learning theorists) seems to be applicable in both ways. An analysis of its logical and empirical validity shows, however, that the basis of this concept is ambiguous. The concept is defined on the basis of statistical probability, but implicitly interpreted on the base of inductive probability. Thus the measurement and also the strategic application of subjective information are doubtful. This concept does not seem to be useful as a paradigm for the solution of analogous problems.