Partial vs. general equilibrium analysis and choice of functional form: Implications for policy modeling

In formulating empirically tractable, economywide models, researchers are often forced to employ “convenient” functional forms. These forms embody restrictive maintained hypotheses. Alternatively, flexible functional forms may be utilized in a partial equilibrium setting. Estimation and incorporation of flexible functions into computable general equilibrium models is considerably more demanding of research resources. Assuming that shortcuts will continue to be necessary for researchers attempting to respond to current policy problems, this paper compares these two alternatives. Specifically, a general equilibrium model for New York State is employed to evaluate the relative performances of flexible partial equilibrium models and their more restrictive, general equilibrium counterpart. In the particular application considered, the former approach is found to dominate the latter.     

Not so cheap talk: costly and discrete communication

We model an interaction between an informed sender and an uninformed receiver. As in the classic cheap talk setup, the informed player sends a message to an uninformed receiver who is to take an action which affects the payoffs of both players. However, in our model, the sender can communicate only through the use of discrete messages which are ordered by the cost incurred by the sender. We characterize the resulting equilibria without refining out-of-equilibrium beliefs. Subsequently, we apply an adapted version of the no incentive to separate (NITS) condition to our model. We show that if the sender and receiver have aligned preferences regarding the action of the receiver, then NITS only admits the equilibrium with the largest possible number of induced actions. When the preferences between players are not aligned, we show that NITS does not guarantee uniqueness, and we provide an example where an increase in communication costs can improve communication. As we show, this improvement can occur to such an extent that the equilibrium outperforms the Goltsman et al. (J Econ Theory 144:1397–1420, 2009) upper bound for receiver’s payoffs in mediated communication.     

Examining the Absence of a Gender Effect on Abortion Attitudes: Is There Really No Difference?

Earlier research on attitudes toward abortion has found little or no difference between men and women. To the limited extent that there is any gender effect, men are slightly more inclined than women to be prochoice (e.g., Cook, Jelen, and Wilcox 1992). Women, however, have been found to regard the issue as more important (Scott and Schuman 1988). The present study uses General Social Survey data from 1972 through 1994 to further explore gender and attitudes toward abortion. We find that within three marital statuses–single, married, widowed–men are somewhat more supportive of abortion rights but that women consider the issue to be more important and have clearer but not necessarily stronger attitudes than men. When differences in workforce participation are controlled, the sex effect is reversed, with women being more prochoice than men. Although significantly related to abortion attitudes, race, marital status, and religious identity are not relevant to this reversal in the sex effect.     

A new route to norms evolution: insights from India’s right to food campaign

For over a decade, activists in India have waged a nationwide Right to Food (RTF) campaign aimed at highlighting persistent undernutrition in their country and galvanizing corresponding legal and administrative reform. This article draws on original interview data to demonstrate the process through which the campaign has forged a new and more robust interpretation of the RTF than that prevailing in international law and practice. It has done so by relying largely on domestic law, institutions, and networks rather than through ‘vernacularization’ of international norms or transnational advocacy. The campaign’s innovative conceptualization of the RTF along with the ongoing challenges it faces in attempting to influence the implementation of that right have broader implications for human rights theory and advocacy beyond India.     

Family Planning and Women’s and Children’s Health: Long-Term Consequences of an Outreach Program in Matlab, Bangladesh

We analyze the impact of an experimental maternal and child health and family planning program that was established in Matlab, Bangladesh, in 1977. Village data from 1974, 1982, and 1996 suggest that program villages experienced a decline in fertility of about 17 %. Household data from 1996 confirm that this decline in “surviving fertility” persisted for nearly two decades. Women in program villages also experienced other benefits: increased birth spacing, lower child mortality, improved health status, and greater use of preventive health inputs. Some benefits also diffused beyond the boundaries of the program villages into neighboring comparison villages. These effects are robust to the inclusion of individual, household, and community characteristics. We conclude that the benefits of this reproductive and child health program in rural Bangladesh have many dimensions extending well beyond fertility reduction, which do not appear to dissipate rapidly after two decades.     

Motivating job design as a factor in open source governance

Successful open source software (OSS) projects can be considered as examples of how ambitious work results can be achieved in web-based collaboration even when monetary incentives are low or absent. While former explorations of motivational processes in OSS projects primarily focused on person-oriented aspects such as motives, interests, and expected benefits of contributors, job-related factors have been largely neglected. After discussing the limitations of a person-oriented focus, a research perspective is suggested that concentrates on job design and work context in OSS based on frameworks from work psychology. A theoretical analysis is presented discussing job characteristics of successful OSS projects as potential explanations of the high motivation of OSS contributors. Compared to a person-oriented perspective, the results of a job-oriented approach might be better transferable to other projects (both OSS and “closed source” software development) and provide guidelines for the governance of successful web-based collaboration.