A “brer rabbit” case for reverse mandated benefits

Reverse mandated benefits is a government-mandated policy that requires employees to provide their employers with benefits that workers would not provide otherwise. Of course, only those benefits would be mandated that are worth more to employers than they cost, as determined by political authorities. My case for such a policy argues that it is at least as sensible as policies mandating that employers provide benefits to their employees that would not be provided otherwise.     

利用光敏核不育性进行水稻轮回选择的程序探讨

本文对利用光敏核不育性进行水稻轮回选择进行了探讨。提出基本轮回选择方案和综合轮回选择方案。基本轮回选择方案是以一个光敏核不育材料为母本与多个亲本组配构成轮回选择的综合群体,而其后按常规轮回选择法进行育种的方案。综合轮回选择方案是以两个或两个以上的光敏核不育材料作为母体与多个亲本组配,在 F_2代群体中不同质源的优良植株相互交配构成综合群体,其后按基本方案进行的轮回选择。     

丰水区筑坝截流——调丰补歉

该文从中国人口快速增长、经济建设加快、用水量逐年增大 ,加上气候变暖、少雨干旱将持续到 2 0 15年 ,我国北方水生态环境日趋恶化现状 ,说明在丰水区筑坝截流、调丰补歉势在必行 ,完全符合生态经济学发展原则和国际水法     

抗战时期中国文学的雅俗互融－－兼论张恨水、张爱玲、赵树理

中国现代文学史的编写,多年来存在着一个致命的弱点,就是缺乏对通俗文学的重视.实际上,在抗战时期,处在不同政治地域内最有影响的代表作家张恨水、张爱玲、赵树理的创作均已表现出雅俗互融的风格.但由于他们的出身、生活经历和文化底蕴不同,因此表现出了各自不同的特点.     

Expected sample moments of concomitants of selected order statistics

In this paper, the task of determining expected values of sample moments, where the sample members have been selected based on noisy information, is considered. This task is a recurring problem in the theory of evolution strategies. Exact expressions for expected values of sums of products of concomitants of selected order statistics are derived. Then, using Edgeworth and Cornish-Fisher approximations, explicit results that depend on coefficients that can be determined numerically are obtained. While the results are exact only for normal populations, it is shown experimentally that including skewness and kurtosis in the calculations can yield greatly improved results for other distributions.     

社会史论战的先声——《新生命》杂志对中国社会结构的探讨

20世纪20年代末30年代初,《新生命》杂志作者群体围绕着中国社会结构进行过一场讨论,可以视之为其后中国社会史论战的先导。这次讨论最大的特点,是关注中国社会及其社会史的特殊性,而不是共同性;所用的方法是社会学的方法,包括马克思主义的社会学。在探讨中国社会结构问题时,《新生命》杂志是一份既非反对唯物史观,也不是完全意义上坚持唯物史观的刊物。     

Individual irrationality and social welfare

Individual preferences inconsistent with personal welfare caused neither by ignorance nor by a positive consideration for the welfare of others are defined as (welfare) irrational. Sources of irrationality (rigid adherence to moral principles, excessive fear of danger, excessive tempetation of pleasure, revenge, inertia, faulty telescopic faculty, the fallacy of diminishing marginal utility of utility, etc.) are discussed. An evolutionary explanation of irrationality is suggested and some implications for individual decision and social policy indicated.I am grateful to two anonymous referees for comments.     

Cohort shifts in the timing of births in Ghana

A comparison of cohorts of ever-married Chanaian women suggests evidence of a fertility transition beginning among younger women and select subgroups. Ghana's crude birth rate declined from a high of 50/1000 population in 1970 to 38.8/1000 in 1985. To ascertain whether marital fertility is now being controlled through conscious attempts to lengthen birth intervals, World Fertility Survey data from 1979-80 on the timing of births among different birth cohorts were analyzed. It was hypothesized that, as a result of the influence of Western values that stress independence from parents and the introduction of compulsory education, cohorts of the mid-1950s and 1960s would be more likely to postpone childbearing, more active in the modern sector of the economy, and more accepting of modern contraceptive usage for birth spacing than women in the 1930-39, 1940-49, and 1950-59 cohorts. For the 1940-49 cohort, it took 10.8 months for 25% to have a birth following 1st marriage, 18.7 months for 50% to have a 1st birth, and 27.4 months for 75% to complete this step. By comparison, these figures for the 1955-64 birth cohort were 9.9, 16.7, and 20.5 months, respectively. The significantly shorter (p 0.01) interval between marriage and 1st birth found among younger women in part reflects rising age at marriage; mean age at 1st marriage was 17.9 years for the 1940 cohort and 21.6 years for the most recent cohort. After the birth of the 1st child, recent cohorts were more likely to wait longer for the 2nd birth. For women born in 1950-64, it took 21.8, 36.7, and 44.6 months for 25%, 50%, and 75%, respectively, to reach parity 2. This pattern of lengthened birth interval beyond the 1st birth was apparent at all parities in the youngest cohort and indicates increasing acceptance of contraception among those who have come of age during a period of rapid social change.