An experimental investigation of simultaneous multi-battle contests with strategic complementarities

This paper reports the results of laboratory experiments that are designed to test theoretical predictions in a multi-battle contest with value complementarities among the battles. The specific setting is a game of Hex where control of each region is determined by a Tullock contest and the overall winner is determined by the combination of claimed regions. We find that in a game with only a few regions, aggregate behavior across regions is largely consistent with the theoretical predictions. However, examining individual level behavior suggests that bidders are not behaving in accordance with the model, but often pursue specific winning combinations. This intuitive behavioral approach is also found to occur in larger games where the theory is undeveloped.     

Agenda-building in the corporate sphere: Analyzing influence in the 2008 Yahoo!-Icahn proxy contest

This study further extends agenda-building theory into the corporate sphere. This investigation tested for agenda-building relationships between the issues emphasized in corporate candidate-controlled information subsidies and financial news media coverage during the 2008 Yahoo! Inc.-Carl Icahn proxy contest for control of Yahoo!’s board of directors. Solid support was found for issue agenda-building associations. Cross-lagged correlation analyses revealed that both Yahoo!’s and Icahn's information subsidies enjoyed some success in shaping media coverage during the proxy fight. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Neighborhood Games as a Community-Building Strategy

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the use of neighborhood games and contests as an alternative approach to community building, and as a complement to traditional issue or interest organizing. It places these activities within the broader contexts of celebration and festivity, noting the relative lack of such events within modern American secular culture. The planning, implementation, and results of two neighborhood-wide games and contests are then described, as carried out in a representative suburban neighborhood. Though full and accurate evaluation is challenging, the community-building promise of these activities is documented. The prospects for future development and use of similar community events are then considered.     

教学大赛:提升高校英语教师职业素养的重要策略

教学大赛最重要的目的是正确指导和引导英语教师健康地成长和进一步发展,关键是通过大赛实现教师自身在教学中的反思,对高校英语教师教学理念、专业发展以及教师职业素养提升等方面具有重要作用。教师能够加强自身对于教学的理解,同时也能够在教学中为学生提供一些新的教学理念,促进学生学习动机的增强和成绩的提高。     

试论中小城市承办高水平赛事的效益与社会学特征

采用文献资料等研究方法 ,通过对中小城市承办高水平赛事的效益分析 ,认为承办高水平赛事对于举办地的经济和社会发展具有多领域、多层次、多时限的巨大效益 ,具有丰富居民文化生活 ,推动社会发展 ,扩大城市之间的交往以及直接的经济追求等社会学特征     

Predicting the outcomes of annual sporting contests

Summary.  Data from 20 sporting contests in which the same two teams compete regularly are studied. Strong and weak symmetry requirements for possible models are identified, and some simple models are proposed and fitted to the data. The need to compute the exact likelihood function and the presence of missing values make this non-trivial. Forecasting match outcomes by using the models can give a modest improvement over a naïve forecast. Significance tests for studying the effect of 'match covariates' such as playing at home or away or winning the toss are introduced, and the effect of these covariates is in general found to be quite large.     

Intergroup conflict,law, and the concept of labor market discrimination

This article begins by reviewing problems that arise in attempts to operationalize standard social scientific definitions of labor market discrimination. It then argues that some of these problems occur because conventional studies of discrimination pay insufficient attention to the role of cultural contests and social and political conflict in disputes over what constitutes fair treatment in the labor market. It proposes a way to reconceptualize labor market discrimination that takes conflict into account and suggests that much could be learned about labor market discrimination by examining how such conflict is expressed in legal disputes occurring under the equal employment opportunity laws. The examination of such conflict also provides a way to link political struggle with labor market outcomes.This is a revised version of a paper presented at the 1988 annual meeting of the Law and Society Association.     

以技能竞赛为载体提高学生就业竞争力

随着全国普通高校会计专业毕业生逐年增多,就业竞争日趋激烈。因此,确立符合社会需求的以就业为导向的会计专业培养目标、增强学生就业竞争能力十分必要,技能大赛在全国的蓬勃开展,为之提供了一个很好的平台,学生在参加比赛的同时,更能锻炼自己的职业技能,提升将来的就业竞争力。