Herd behavior and the quality of opinions

This paper analyzes a decentralized decision model by adding some inertia in the social leaning process. Before making a decision, an agent can observe the group opinion in a society. Social learning can result in a variety of equilibrium behavioral patterns. For insufficient ranges of quality (precision) of opinions, the chosen stationary state is unique and globally accessible, in which all agents adopt the superior action. Sufficient quality of opinions gives rise to multiple stationary states. One of them will be characterized by inefficient herding. The confidence in the majority opinion then has serious welfare consequences.     

Construction of the integrated model for practical career support to the professional athletes

Recently, along with the enhancement of the argument for career of athletes, many researchers who major in sports psychology focus mainly on athletic retirement, a coordination of transitions in sport or and outside sport, social support and professional assistance in career transition, in the context of the second career concerning to professional athletes in Japan. However, when it comes to career transition of professional athletes, it is necessary to consider "career" from the whole perspectives of human life. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to clarify the career transition of professional athletes by the way of questionnaire and interview survey, which is approached from the view point of industrial/organizational psychology. For this purpose, we implemented the interview survey to professional athletes in 2008. In addition, we carried out the investigation to professional football players (interview survey: 5 players, questionnaire survey: 102 players) in 2009. Consequently, three following findings were led in conclusion. (1)Career intervention to professional athletes should be performed before the turning point of the career (career transition). (2)It is important to assess the career intervention to professional athletes. (3)It is an important stance to watch the processes when professional athletes open up one's career by oneself.     

The family system,temporary or permanent auxiliary ego: The differential fate of self-objects

This paper addresses the integration of developmental theory and family system theory. It is based on the assumption that the combination and integration of these two sets of theory gives the social work clinician the richest possible base for diagnostic assessment and intervention. Two points of intersection of these theories, birth and mate selection, are utilized to highlight the natural linkages between the theories and to demonstrate the combined power to more fully inform clinical practice.The human being like any other organism can be understood only in relation to its ecological niche, to which it is fitted by evolution and with which it is in balance or is striving for balance at every point of its life.     

An extension of the Nash bargaining problem and the Nash social welfare function

This paper provides an extension of Nash's bargaining model. The extension permits the domain of a solution function to contain non-convex sets. First, it is shown that the proposed extension is a mathematical generalization of Nash's bargaining problem. Next, some relations between the extension and the Nash social welfare function are developed. The formal equivalence of the two constructs is demonstrated, and the intuitive significance of the results is discussed.I am indebted to S. Ishikawa for helpful comments on an earlier draft and to K. Nakamura for helpful discussions. Any errors that remain are of course my responsibility.     

Citizens’ Perception of Past Environmental Damage and Liability in Countries with Transition: Evidence from Kemerovo,Russia

This paper analyzes citizens’ perception of past environmental damage and liability through the estimation of willingness to pay for the implementation of decontamination and land rehabilitation of the damaged site. The paper takes the Russian Federation as a case of country in transition and focuses on Kemerovo region as one of the most affected regions in the country. The major analytical tool employed in the study is choice experiment, data for which was collected through a household survey. Primary conclusion of the analysis is that citizens' willingness to financially support the implementation of environmental quality improvement projects is not high though individuals in the studied area express high level of concern over the issue in focus.     

Postal Savings for National Development—The Experience of Japan and Future Perspective in a Globalized World

Global economic forces have been prompting the institutional changes in the public sector based on the market-oriented principles and such changes greatly have affected the postal savings system in Japan. Postal savings system’s public roles were fundamentally changed because of current administrative reform undertakings. In this article, firstly the role of collecting savings from ordinary citizens for fiscal policies was reviewed and the assessment of this public role is conducted. Secondly, abolishment of Universal Service Obligation due to the privatization of the postal savings system and the possible occurrence of Financial Exclusion are analyzed.

The developmental phasing of internalization: Implications for diagnosis and treatment

This article proposes that the concepts of internalization and mental representation are the theoretical linkages capable of bridging most if not all of the developmental theories despite the formulation of these theories at varying levels of abstraction. Previously unresolvable theoretical dilemmas fade away before the integrative power of these concepts. A brief review of levels of brain function acknowledges the biological substrate from which all developmental and adaptive processes unfold. As with a single developmental line, normative patterns and deviations are of equal significance to preliminary efforts toward integration. Utilizing the concepts of mental representation and internalization, points of intersection of major developmental theories are illustrated. Application to the therapeutic arena via more developmentally informed diagnosis and specificity of attunement and therapeutic use of self is briefly demonstrated.     

The economics of possible selves

This article proposes an economic model of how intentional self-change occurs. People have an array of possible selves. The self-system is multifaceted and dynamic, with different self-representations activated at different times. Comparison between the actual self and the ideal self has important motivational consequences. The response to perceived discrepancy can be shaped toward desired behavioral change. However, self-verification is also an important factor in the individual's motivational system. Self-verification is expected to undermine intentional self-change. Individuals may have an inert area within which they do not attempt self-change. The inert area idea permits both optimal and sub-optimal economic outcomes within the same model.     

Allocating Costs of Environmental Management among Generations: A Case of Environmental Liabilities in Transition Economies

The objective of this paper is to examine cost allocation in relation to remediating environmental liability issues in Russia, where significant environmental damages, continuing from the Soviet era, present serious impediments to pursuing sustainable development. The research attempts to highlight citizens?? preferences for remediating facilities and sites with environmental liabilities, and elicits preference differences among citizens using choice experiment methods. Intergenerational issues are involved in addressing environmental liabilities in transition economies because the causes and effects are spread among generations. Therefore, evaluating citizens?? preferences provides more policy implications for future remediation initiatives. The econometric analysis reveals that citizens demonstrate positive preferences for reducing pollution of drinking water and soil decontamination. The research also suggests that the households with higher incomes, older household heads (or spouses), and more young children have higher preferences for remediating environmental liabilities in Russia. Estimation of the marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) for age and income segments of the households allows the government to determine a suitable taxation policy. The findings provide new insights on cost allocation in relation to remediating environmental damages in transition economies that have suffered from these serious environmental legacies.     

Exclusion of self evaluations in peer ratings: monotonicity versus unanimity on finitely restricted domains

We consider the model of peer ratings, where each candidate is requested to evaluate all the other candidates, and an aggregation rule specifies the final score of each candidate for every possible configuration of evaluations. We show that if the candidates can select the evaluation marks from a finite and large set of real numbers, there is no aggregation rule that satisfies Monotonicity and Unanimity. We then prove that if the candidates can select the evaluation marks from a finite and small set of real numbers, the summation rule satisfies Monotonicity and Unanimity. Moreover, alternative definitions of unanimity appropriate for the model of peer ratings are proposed and discussed.