GM Foods and the Misperception of Risk Perception

Public opposition to genetically modified (GM) food and crops is widely interpreted as the result of the public's misperception of the risks. With scientific assessment pointing to no unique risks from GM crops and foods, a strategy of accurate risk communication from trusted sources has been advocated. This is based on the assumption that the benefits of GM crops and foods are self-evident. Informed by the interpretation of some qualitative interviews with lay people, we use data from the Eurobarometer survey on biotechnology to explore the hypothesis that it is not so much the perception of risks as the absence of benefits that is the basis of the widespread rejection of GM foods and crops by the European public. Some respondents perceive both risks and benefits, and may be trading off these attributes along the lines of a rational choice model. However, for others, one attribute-benefit-appears to dominate their judgments: the lexicographic heuristic. For these respondents, their perception of risk is of limited importance in the formation of attitudes toward GM food and crops. The implication is that the absence of perceived benefits from GM foods and crops calls into question the relevance of risk communication strategies for bringing about change in public opinion.     

Wearing corset,losing shape: The euro's effect on trade imbalances

When does trade become a one-way relationship? We study bilateral trade balances for a sample of 18 European countries over the period from 1948 through 2008. We find that, with the introduction of the euro, trade imbalances among euro area members widened considerably, even after allowing for permanent asymmetries in trade competitiveness within pairs of countries or in the overall trade competitiveness of individual countries. This is consistent with indications that pair-wise trade tends to be more balanced when nominal exchange rates are flexible. Intra-euro area imbalances also seem to have become more persistent with the introduction of the euro, some of which is linked to labor market inflexibility. Reviewing the direction of imbalances, we find that bilateral trade surpluses are decreasing in the real exchange rate, decreasing in growth differentials, and increasing in the relative volatility of national business cycles. Finally, countries with relatively higher fiscal deficits and less flexible labor and product markets exhibit systematically lower trade surpluses than others.     

(Re)constructing Family Images: Stepmotherhood Before Biological Motherhood

Strong cultural values and ideals attached to women in families deem the role of stepmother as inferior to that of biological mother. Although biological motherhood is celebrated, stepmotherhood is stigmatized, and women who wish to become mothers but become stepmothers prior to having biological children may grieve the loss of images surrounding normative ideals of creating a family. Using a feminist family science approach, the purpose of this grounded theory study was to explore the experiences of women without children in their transition to stepmotherhood. Interviews with 23 stepmothers (aged 26–47) revealed that women engaged in an internal process of creating and then adjusting personal images of family life to accommodate their new family circumstances. The process of (re)constructing family images had implications for later adjustment to stepmotherhood. Notions of the motherhood hierarchy emerged to depict the unique experiences of women who became stepmothers prior to having biological children.     

Imperfect goods and labor markets, and the union wage gap

Existing theoretical literature fails to explain satisfactorily the differences between the pay of workers who are covered by collective agreements and others who are not. This study aims at providing a model framework that is amenable to an analysis of this issue. Our general-equilibrium approach integrates a dual labor market and a two-sector product market. The results suggest that the so-called “union wage gap” is largely determined by the degree of centralization of the bargains and, to a somewhat lesser extent, by the expenditure share of the unionized sector's goods.

The Relationship Between Aversive Conditioning and Risk-avoidance in Gambling

This study investigated the relationship between aversive conditioning, heart rate variability suppression, behavioral activation system/behavioral inhibition system and risk-avoidance on the Iowa gambling task (IGT) in a nonclinical sample (29 male, 29 female, mean age = 20.7). A laboratory based Pavlovian aversive conditioning paradigm was used where a 1500 Hz tone (CS+) was followed by a burst of loud white noise (US), and a 850 Hz (CS−) tone was never followed by the US. In a subsequent extinction phase where the CS+ and CS− were presented without the US, conditioned skin conductance responses to the CS+ indicated aversive conditioning. The results showed that the participants who did not show aversive conditioning (N = 26) exhibited significantly less risk-avoidance compared to participants who did show aversive conditioning (N = 32). Regression analysis showed that among the study variables, only aversive conditioning contributed significantly to explaining variance in risk-avoidance. These results may have implications for understanding risk-taking in gambling in general, and may be a starting point understanding the role of aversive conditioning in the development and maintenance of gambling problems.     

Attentional Bias in Problem Gambling: A Systematic Review

Attentional bias has been the subject of extensive empirical investigation in connection with chemical addictions, and it has been demonstrated in users of several different substances. The findings show that substance users seem to notice and attend to substance-related stimuli more readily than non-substance-related stimuli. Less is known, however, about attentional bias in pathological gambling. This systematic review investigates the existing empirical evidence on attentional bias in problem and pathological gamblers. Eleven studies were identified and evaluated following a literature search. Key findings are that problem and pathological gamblers seem to exhibit attentional bias toward gambling-related stimuli across different measuring paradigms, although some negative findings were reported. Recommendations aimed at improving research on this topic include better validation of measures, the inclusion of manipulations of craving level, and adding variations in gambling severity as a variable, as well as gambling preference. Research on therapeutic procedures aimed at reducing attentional bias is also recommended.     

Confidence curves and improved exact confidence intervals for discrete distributions

The author describes a method for improving standard “exact” confidence intervals in discrete distributions with respect to size while retaining correct level. The binomial, negative binomial, hypergeometric, and Poisson distributions are considered explicitly. Contrary to other existing methods, the author's solution possesses a natural nesting condition: if α < α', the 1 ‐ α' confidence interval is included in the 1 ‐ α interval. Nonparametric confidence intervals for a quantile are also considered.     

Shrinkage and Orthogonal Decomposition

ABSTRACT. The problem of estimating the mean of a multivariate normal distribution when the parameter space allows an orthogonal decomposition is discussed. Risk functions and lower bounds for a class of shrinkage estimators that includes Stein's estimator are derived, and an improvement on Stein's estimator that takes advantage of the orthogonal decomposition is introduced. Uniform asymptotics related to Pinsker's minimax risk is derived and we give conditions for attaining the lower risk bound. Special cases including regression and analysis of variance are discussed.     

Helfen, Strafen, Überwachen. Begriff und Praxis sozialer Kontrolle

Currently we observe two trends in social control: It is increasingly carried out by informal agencies and it is shifted ?downwards‘. As regards the first trend, two variants have become apparent: a criminalizing variant and a support variant. The criminalizing variant reflects widespread attitudes among the general public and is in accord with the interests of power. The support variant reflects modern demands on the ability of individuals to make decisions. However, the capacity to meet these demands and to have the ability to shift social control ?downwards‘ do not provide a sufficient basis for individual autonomy.