Nature’s Experiment? Handedness and Early Childhood Development

In recent years, a large body of research has investigated the various factors affecting child development and the consequent impact of child development on future educational and labor market outcomes. In this article, we contribute to this literature by investigating the effect of handedness on child development. This is an important issue given that around 10% of the world’s population is left-handed and given recent research demonstrating that child development strongly affects adult outcomes. Using a large, nationally representative sample of young children, we find that the probability of a child being left-handed is not significantly related to child health at birth, family composition, parental employment, or household income. We also find robust evidence that left-handed (and mixed-handed) children perform significantly worse in nearly all measures of development than right-handed children, with the relative disadvantage being larger for boys than girls. Importantly, these differentials cannot be explained by different socioeconomic characteristics of the household, parental attitudes, or investments in learning resources.     

PREDICTING RETIREMENT SAVINGS USING SURVEY MEASURES OF EXPONENTIAL‐GROWTH BIAS AND PRESENT BIAS

In a nationally representative sample, we predict retirement savings using survey‐based elicitations of exponential‐growth bias (EGB) and present bias (PB). We find that EGB, the tendency to neglect compounding, and PB, the tendency to value the present over the future, are highly significant and economically meaningful predictors of retirement savings. These relationships hold controlling for cognitive ability, financial literacy, and a rich set of demographic controls. We address measurement error as a potential confound and explore mechanisms through which these biases may operate. Back of the envelope calculations suggest that eliminating EGB and PB would increase retirement savings by approximately 12%. (JEL D91, D14)     

A mixed control chart for monitoring failure times under accelerated hybrid censoring

In an accelerated hybrid censoring scheme several stress factors can be accelerated to make the products to respond to fail more quickly than under normal operating conditions. In such situations, the control charts available in the literature cover the attribute characteristics only to monitor the performance of the process over time. This study extends the idea by proposing an optimal mixed attribute-variable control chart for Weibull distribution under an accelerated hybrid censoring scheme keeping the advantages of both attribute and variable control charts. It first monitors the number of defectives under accelerated conditions and switches to the variable control chart to investigate the mean failure times when the process stability is dubious. The performance of the proposed chart is evaluated by using run-length characteristics, and the optimality of the design parameter is achieved by minimizing the out-of-control average run length. The simulation study depicted better performance of the proposed control chart than the traditional charts in detecting shifts in the process. A real-life application is also included.KEYWORDS: Mixed control chart, attribute chart, variable chart, Weibull distribution, accelerated hybrid censoring     

‘Away with the fairies?’ Disability within primary‐age children's literature

This article outlines the findings of a new study that explores the portrayal of disability within a sample of the primary‐age children's literature most readily available to UK schools. The kind of literature to which children are exposed is likely to influence their general perceptions of social life. How disability is handled by authors is therefore important from the standpoint of disability equality. Findings suggest that whilst there are some good examples of inclusive literature ‘out there’, discriminatory language and/or negative stereotypes about disability continue to be present in a range of more contemporary children's books. Clearly, more still needs to be done to ensure that schools and teachers are provided with information relating to the best examples of inclusion literature and efforts must continue to be made to inform authors, publishers and illustrators about how to approach the issue of disability.     

The Impact of Bandung City's Rapid Development on children's Independent Mobility and Access to Friendly Play Environments

This study explored the extent to which the enormous development in Bandung City, Indonesia has some bearing on local children as the youngest inhabitants. In particular, it focused on the issue of children's independent mobility and the availability of friendly play environments in children's neighbourhoods. The result of this study showed that the development of Bandung City has created a disparity in access regarding children's opportunities for mobility as well as participation in friendly play environments. This study identified that many children were allowed to visit two places — local shops and the local mosque — without accompanying elders. This study also recognised children's desires to have appropriately designed play spaces, such as parks that are equipped with play equipment and rich in nature. Thus, this study argues the necessity to preserve the remaining and add a significant number of new, free, outdoor play spaces in the city.     

Measuring the economic impacts of recent oil price shocks on oil-dependent economy: evidence from Malaysia

This paper examines the economy-wide impacts of recent oil price shocks on the Malaysian economy. To achieve this objective, an integrated methodological framework that combines econometric and input–output models is utilized to assess the impacts of an oil price shock on tax revenues, employment, labor income and gross domestic product (GDP). Our results reveal that the recent oil price shocks significantly affects these macroeconomic variables. The decline in oil prices from 2015 to 2016 reduces tax revenues by 10.5%, lower GDP by 1.9% and increases the unemployment rate by 0.3%. As such, the sharp crunch in oil prices serves as a reminder to policymakers on the vulnerability inherent in overreliance on oil exports and the urgent need to diversify the economy.     

Generalized geometric distribution of order k: A flexible choice to randomize the response

This article focuses on the improvement of a well-celebrated randomized response technique of Kuk. A generalized randomized response technique is suggested. In particular, the generalized geometric distribution of order k is introduced as a randomization device for estimating the population proportion of a rare sensitive attribute. The proposed randomized response technique includes Singh and Grewal and Hussain et al. techniques as its special cases. Through numerical illustrations, it is established that the suggested technique is superior to the Kuk, Singh and Grewal, and Hussain et al. techniques. Flexibility of the proposed technique is also discussed.     

人物与粉丝带的隐喻——论《小伙子古德曼·布朗》的象征寓意

《小伙子古德曼·布朗》,被公认是纳撒尼尔·霍桑一部极具艺术价值的经典之作。本文试图从作家及其作品简介入手,着重分析作品中人物和粉丝带的象征意义,有助于读者更加全面,准确地解读《小伙子古德曼·布朗》中象征手法的运用。对《小伙子古德曼·布朗》中运用的象征手法的研究,对于我们全面地认识霍桑的象征主义有着重要而深远的意义。     

高职英语听力教学的几点思考

本文从学生与教师两方面入手,分别探讨了现阶段高职英语听力教学中存在的普遍问题及原因,旨在为今后的教学工作改善提出新的思路与解决方法。     

Intrahousehold Resource Allocation: Do Parents Reduce or Reinforce Child Ability Gaps?

Do parents invest more or less in their high-ability children? We provide new evidence on this question by comparing observed ability differences and observed investment differences between siblings living in the United States. To overcome endogeneity issues, we use sibling differences in handedness as an instrument for cognitive ability differences. We find that parents invest more in high-ability children, with a 1 standard deviation increase in child cognitive ability increasing parental investments by approximately one-third of a standard deviation. Consequently, differences in child cognitive ability are enhanced by differential parental investments.