CHARITIES, NO; LOTTERIES, NO; CASH, YES: MAIN EFFECTS AND INTERACTIONS IN A CANADIAN INCENTIVES EXPERIMENT

The effects on response rates to mail surveys of prepaymentcash incentives, charitable donations, and the chance to wina lottery prize are examined in a true experimental design.A survey on environmental issues was conducted during the fallof 1994 among 3,088 households drawn from the Grand River watershedregion of southwestern Ontario, Canada. The 20-cell incentivesexperiment crossed three levels of prepaid monetary cash incentive($2, $5, and $10) with a control group (no cash incentive),plus the offer to make a charitable donation ranging from $2to $10 on behalf of the respondent, or participation in a lotteryfor prizes of $200. The overall response rate to the survey,with three follow-ups, was 70.7 percent with the effects ofthe prepaid cash rewards demonstrated, but not those for thelottery or charitable donations. Logistic regression analysisof response rate supports a main effects model for cash incentivesbut does not support either of two alternative models for maineffects of the lottery and charitable donations or interactions.Further analysis demonstrates a pattern of earlier responseas a result of prepaid incentives. The findings are discussedin terms of their cost-benefit implications and with respectto conceptualizations of respondents' motives for completingmail questionnaires.     

THE KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION FUNCTION FOR UNIVERSITY PATENTING

We estimate a knowledge production function for university patenting using an individual effects negative binomial model. We control for Research and Development expenditures, research field, and the presence of a Technology Transfer Office. We distinguish between three kinds of researchers: faculty, postdoctoral scholars (postdocs), and PhD students. For the latter two, we also distinguish by visa status. We find patent counts to relate positively and significantly to the number of PhD students and number of postdocs. Our results also suggest that not all graduate students and postdocs contribute equally to patenting but that contribution is mediated by citizenship and visa status. (JEL C25, O31, O32, O34, O38)     

Some Epistemic and Methodological Challenges within an Intercultural Experience

My experience with the Intercultural Indigenous System of Learning and Studies (SIIDAE) in Chiapas gave rise to a dialogue on two different levels: intercultural and interdisciplinary. I understand dialogue here as a very complex model of translation that, at the same time, challenges the unilateral conception of translation. This article reports the decolonial challenges raised by SIIDAE during our dialogue and responds to these challenges by proposing an intercultural reflection on anthropological practice and on its geohistorical context, and by showing the need of an intercultural transformation of society and of anthropology itself.     

Serial Order Preference in Survey Research

Serial order preference was examined over a range of attitudinalmeasurements. The ordering of the response options did not havea substantive effect on either single-item measures or attitudescales. Continued attention to serial order preference in surveyresearch does not seem warranted     

HUMAN CAPITAL PRODUCTION: LIFE-CYCLE PRODUCTION WITH DIFFERENT LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES

This paper investigates the human capital formation process when the learning situation is not neutral but is instead biased either to the market or to the production process. In the case of a production bias, human capital is more productive when generating additional human capital than when generating market activity. In the case of a market bias, the reverse holds. Implications from the model are used to explain the occurrence of different shaped earnings profiles of equal net present value as well as income profiles of unequal present value.     

Genetically Modified Organisms in the Portuguese Press: thematization and anchoring

ABSTRACT: The main aim of this paper is to examine how the recent themata developments in Social Representations Theory can be linked with the classical process involved in the construction of social representations—anchoring—, as well as with the communicative modalities that are part of the theory since its inception. This was done through a study of the representation of GMOs in the Portuguese press, taken as an opportunity for addressing the issues related to the role played by old categories in rendering new meanings and in establishing new categories.
A further objective of the study, more applied in nature, was to explore whether the central characteristics of the representations of biotechnology in European countries were also present in Portugal.
All articles that included the expressions Genetically Modified/Genetic Modification/Manipulation or Transgenics, were collected, in five Portuguese newspapers, during the years of 1999, 2000 and 2001. Content analysis of the 239 articles collected showed that their thematical organisation re-constitutes the Red/Green dichotomy found in most European countries. The Red/health discussion is structured around such themata as health/disease, risk/safety, benefits/problems, and anchors in categories like science and progress. The nature/culture opposition emerges, in turn, in the Green/food discussion, which anchors on categories like ideology and employs Propaganda as a communicative modality—a set of indicators configuring a more polemic debate. The conclusions discuss the relevance of linking themata with anchoring and the importance of devising more fine-grained tools for the analysis of Diffusion.