Unconditional government social cash transfer in Africa does not increase fertility

Among policymakers, a common perception surrounding the effects of cash transfer programmes, particularly unconditional programmes targeted to families with children, is that they induce increased fertility. We evaluate the Zambian Child Grant Programme, a government unconditional cash transfer targeted to families with a child under the age of 5 and examine impacts on fertility and household composition. The evaluation was a cluster randomized control trial, with data collected over 4 years from 2010 to 2014. Our results indicate that there are no programme impacts on overall fertility. Our results contribute to a small evidence base demonstrating that there are no unintended incentives related to fertility due to cash transfers.     

An investigation of unmet intimacy needs in marital relationships

In this investigation we examined partners' responses to unmet intimacy needs in hopes of better understanding how these responses may affect intimacy satisfaction and overall relationship satisfaction. Eighty-four married couples, plus four additional husbands and 12 additional wives, were recruited from the community and completed measures of relationship satisfaction, intimacy need satisfaction, and attributional and communication responses to unmet intimacy needs. Consistent with the proposed mediational model, less negative attributional and communication responses to unmet intimacy needs were found to be beneficial for overall intimacy satisfaction and relationship satisfaction. In addition, more positive communication responses contributed to greater intimacy satisfaction. Limitations and clinical implications of the current study and directions for future work are discussed.     

RECONCILING MICRO AND MACRO ESTIMATES OF THE FRISCH LABOR SUPPLY ELASTICITY

This paper explores the large gap between the microeconometric estimates of the Frisch labor supply elasticity (0–.5) and the values used by macroeconomists to calibrate general equilibrium models (2–4). These two ranges identify two fundamentally different notions, the micro and macro Frisch elasticity, respectively. Due to the different definitions, there are two restrictions in the micro Frisch elasticity that are relaxed in the macro Frisch elasticity. First, the micro Frisch elasticity focuses only on prime‐aged married males who are the head of their household, while the macro Frisch elasticity represents the whole population. Second, the micro Frisch elasticity only incorporates intensive margin fluctuations in hours, while the macro Frisch elasticity includes both intensive and extensive margin fluctuations. This paper finds that relaxing these two restrictions causes estimates of the Frisch elasticity to increase from 0.2 to between 2.9 and 3.1, indicating that these two restrictions can explain the gap between the microeconometric estimates and the calibration values. However, this paper demonstrates that these estimates of the macro Frisch elasticity are sensitive to the estimation procedure and also the exclusion of older individuals, implying that calibration values used for macroeconomic models should be selected carefully. (JEL E24, J22)     

Sublimation therapy: Helping reason get back to a solid footing

This article responds to Professor Tumolo’s “A Sublimed Experience of the Rhetoric of Plato’s Republic.” He selects passages from Plato’s Republic in order to illustrate Plato’s explicit use of rhetoric as a subliminal tool for political control. He finds the Myth of Metals establishes through “public memory” a caste system ensuring that only the golden people, the philosophers, will be considered able rulers. They are the only ones able to see the Truth outside the Cave. Philosophy publically opposes rhetoric because it privately manipulates it for its own power. I respond that Tumolo’s conclusions are too broad for the limited passages that he considers, too literal when considering a dramatic and dialogic text like the Republic, and too committed to a preconceived mind-set that Plato (and philosophy) is opposed to rhetoric and wishes to avoid it. Philosophy and rhetoric do basically differ that one needs to reveal itself for examination and the other to conceal for most effective persuasion, but they also need each other. Tumolo finds rhetoric in the Republic; if he can free himself of advisors like Popper, he may also see the philosophical role of rhetoric to find the best opinions for guiding our lives. Amid the free speech in a democracy, philosophy can best flourish.     

Mutual agreement,subliminal persuasion,and the possibility of pluralism

This article concludes the correspondence between Michael Warren Tumolo and myself about the roles of philosophy and rhetoric in each other’s business. It builds upon his original article “A Sublimed Experience of the Rhetoric of Plato’s Republic,” my response to this, and then his response “On Critical Faith and Metacritical Agnosticism: Nietzsche, Socrates, and the Searches for Knowledge.” Tumolo begins with a discussion of Plato’s method in his Republic and his use of deceitful rhetoric in the Metals Myth at the same time as he is devaluing rhetoricians for being deceitful. My response concerns his selective and literal versus my holistic and contextual readings of Plato and the complexities of reading a dramatic dialogue. His response illuminated the orientation for his method in the antiepistemologist stance he shares with several colleagues and the metacritical or pluralist stance he claims to share with Nietzsche. My conclusion examines the difficulties of maintaining a pluralist position when certain of one’s argument. Tumolo’s antiepistemological and pro-rhetoric polemic belies his advocacy of pluralism. I find Nietzsche to be compatible with a dramatic and dialogical Plato and suggest that Tumolo’s method would be stronger if inspired by this Plato rather than fighting against him.     

Effects of habitat fragment size and isolation on the density and genetics of urban red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus)

Urban expansion is creating environmental stressors through land use change, habitat fragmentation, and habitat loss. These stressors, along with a host of others, are driving precipitous declines in vertebrate taxa around the world. Amphibians, often requiring a narrow range of environmental conditions, can be especially susceptible to the stressors of environmental change. Despite habitat loss and degradation, some amphibian species continue to persist in altered urban landscapes. The red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus) is one such- species and in this study, we assess how habitat patch size affects population density and genetic diversity of salamander populations in and around an urban center in Ohio, United States. Further, we examined patterns of genetic differentiation and landscape connectivity to understand gene flow between populations and tested for historic demographic bottleneck effects. Populations were sampled from 9 urban forest patches ranging in size from less than 1 ha to approximately 250 ha. There was no apparent effect of contiguous habitat patch size on salamander density nor genetic diversity, but we did observe significant genetic differentiation between 97% of pairwise population comparisons. The differentiation observed was not a result of overland distance or effective distance due to landscape resistance. There was evidence of historic bottlenecks at every site. These results suggest that density is driven by within-patch heterogeneity and that genetic diversity is affected by drivers other than patch size or contemporary population density. Our study demonstrates that red-backed salamanders can persist in wooded, urban parks, but that genetic diversity remains susceptible to demographic changes.

     

Creating Stable Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities in the United States: A Model for the Future

We examine fourteen stable, racially and ethnically diverse communities in nine US cities to understand what produces such communities. These communities in the context of the US experience of increased, multiracial, and multiethnic diversity in the early twenty-first century can serve as a policy model as both the US and European nations look ahead toward more diverse societies. After providing a brief history of US segregation patterns, we provide an analysis of factors related to stable diversity. We found two types of diversity. Diversity-by-direction communities, which are more likely to be black:white communities, consciously worked to preserve diversity through an array of community-based efforts. Diverse-by-circumstance communities, which are more likely to be multiracial, multiethnic communities with significant immigrant populations, have been faced with an unplanned diversity, which they are now working to preserve. Among the characteristics of stable diverse communities are the presence of: social seams linking different groups, community organizations involved in preserving diversity, public discussion of values of what produces 'good' community, and distinctive physical or environmental characteristics that continue to attract new residents.