scholarly journals A Revealed Preference Ranking of U.S. Colleges and Universities *

2012 ◽  
Vol 128 (1) ◽  
pp. 425-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher N. Avery ◽  
Mark E. Glickman ◽  
Caroline M. Hoxby ◽  
Andrew Metrick

Abstract We present a method of ranking U.S. undergraduate programs based on students’ revealed preferences. When a student chooses a college among those that have admitted him, that college “wins” his “tournament.” Our method efficiently integrates the information from thousands of such tournaments. We implement the method using data from a national sample of high-achieving students. We demonstrate that this ranking method has strong theoretical properties, eliminating incentives for colleges to adopt strategic, inefficient admissions policies to improve their rankings. We also show empirically that our ranking is (1) not vulnerable to strategic manipulation; (2) similar regardless of whether we control for variables, such as net cost, that vary among a college’s admits; (3) similar regardless of whether we account for students selecting where to apply, including Early Decision. We exemplify multiple rankings for different types of students who have preferences that vary systematically.

Author(s):  
Laura Blow ◽  
Martin Browning ◽  
Ian Crawford

Abstract This paper provides a revealed preference characterisation of quasi-hyperbolic discounting which is designed to be applied to readily-available expenditure surveys. We describe necessary and sufficient conditions for the leading forms of the model and also study the consequences of the restrictions on preferences popularly used in empirical lifecycle consumption models. Using data from a household consumption panel dataset we explore the prevalence of time-inconsistent behaviour. The quasi-hyperbolic model provides a significantly more successful account of behaviour than the alternatives considered. We estimate the joint distribution of time preferences and the distribution of discount functions at various time horizons.


1999 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 219-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don Tustin

AbstractFunctional analysis is used to identify potential reinforcers by generating hypotheses about possible functions of a behaviour. Current methods of functional analysis emphasise observations of events, especially consequences, that occur in the immediate environment of the behaviour. While these methods are well suited for assessing behaviour that is reinforced frequently, they are less appropriate for assessing behaviour that is reinforced only intermittently. A new method for conducting functional analysis is presented that is designed to assess intermittently reinforced behaviour. The new method is illustrated using data that were gathered from an extension of a standard problem-solving format. Data are interpreted using the principle of revealed preference that arose from behavioural economics. The revealed preference method is illustrated using information provided by a client with a dependent personality disorder.


2003 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn A. Kapinus ◽  
Michael P. Johnson

Using data from a 1980 national sample of married men and women, the analysis examines the utility of the family life cycle concept, employing as dependent variables constructs from Johnson’s conceptualization of commitment. They argue, in disagreement with two classic critiques of the family life cycle concept, that the predictive power of family life cycle is, for many dependent variables, quite independent of age or length of marriage. Their analyses demonstrate that, when using dependent variables one would expect to be related to the presence and ages of children, family life cycle remains a useful predictive tool.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (05) ◽  
pp. A08
Author(s):  
Jagadish Thaker ◽  
Brian Floyd

Scientists highlight that actions that address environmental protection and climate change can also help with reducing infectious disease threats. Results using data from a national sample survey in New Zealand indicate that perceptions of co-benefits of actions to address environmental protection that also protect against infectious disease outbreaks such as the coronavirus is associated with policy support and political engagement. This association was partly mediated through perceived collective efficacy. Local councils with higher level of community collective efficacy were more likely to declare climate emergency. Communication about potential co-benefits is likely to shape public engagement and enact policy change.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eike Mark Rinke ◽  
Patricia Moy

While it is a truism that political voice is a cornerstone of democratic theory, less theorizing has focused on its counterpart, political listening. Drawing upon research related to listening practices, this study operationalizes for empirical study Dobson’s (2014) normative concepts of apophatic listening, which is dialogic and facilitates discussion across lines of difference, and cataphatic listening, which is monologic and disruptive in nature. Using data from a national sample survey of Latinos fielded shortly after the 2016 U.S. presidential election (N = 720), we provide an empirical test of these listening practices’ democratic value by examining how relational and analytical listening (dimensions of apophatic practices) and task-oriented and critical listening (dimensions of cataphatic practices) are associated with various political outcomes, including political interest, knowledge, trust, and participation. Findings indicate that, from a normative point of view, task-oriented listening was unrelated or negatively related to political outcomes while relational listening had ambivalent relations. However, the two cognitive-epistemic dimensions of both types of listening – analytical listening and critical (error-seeking) listening – were both strongly and positively related to most studied political outcomes. These findings offer nuanced evidence that apophatic and cataphatic listening might not necessarily be at odds with each other where democratically desirable outcomes are concerned.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arjun Kumar

The 2030 agenda on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlights the importance of sanitation and sets the Goal #6: ‘Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all’. While rural households in India have witnessed a marginal improvement in access to toilet facility in recent decades, they continue to face high levels of deprivation along with spatial and socio-economic disparities and exclusions, which have been highlighted in this article using data from Census of India, National Sample Surveys and Baseline Survey. Determinants of households having access to latrine facility in the house have been estimated using an econometric exercise and contribution of caste-based factors of the gap in access among various social groups have been estimated using decomposition technique on household-level information from National Sample Survey data. Households located in backward regions and belonging to the weaker sections of society, such as poor, wage labourers, Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes, have been found to be the most deprived and excluded. Thus, there is an urgent need to pace up the developmental efforts for rural sanitation to achieve the SDGs, along with complementary measures to focus on backward regions, weaker sections and socio-spatial position of households in rural India.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Cosaert

When consumers care not only for the quantity but also the value of a product, it could be rational to purchase products as they become more expensive. This study provides nonparametric—revealed preference—conditions to measure consumers' marginal willingness to pay for value (i.e., diamondness) associated with particular goods. This is the first nonparametric test of price-dependent preferences. The proposed diamondness measure is applied to observational data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey. The results show that this diamondness measure is related to a product's visibility to society, which indicates a certain degree of conspicuous consumption. (JEL D12, P36)


Econometrics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Francis Bilson Darku ◽  
Frank Konietschke ◽  
Bhargab Chattopadhyay

The Gini index, a widely used economic inequality measure, is computed using data whose designs involve clustering and stratification, generally known as complex household surveys. Under complex household survey, we develop two novel procedures for estimating Gini index with a pre-specified error bound and confidence level. The two proposed approaches are based on the concept of sequential analysis which is known to be economical in the sense of obtaining an optimal cluster size which reduces project cost (that is total sampling cost) thereby achieving the pre-specified error bound and the confidence level under reasonable assumptions. Some large sample properties of the proposed procedures are examined without assuming any specific distribution. Empirical illustrations of both procedures are provided using the consumption expenditure data obtained by National Sample Survey (NSS) Organization in India.


2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 370-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason D Boardman ◽  
Michael E Roettger ◽  
Benjamin W Domingue ◽  
Matthew B McQueen ◽  
Brett C Haberstick ◽  
...  

This paper highlights the role of institutional resources and policies, whose origins lie in political processes, in shaping the genetic etiology of body mass among a national sample of adolescents. Using data from Waves I and II of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we decompose the variance of body mass into environmental and genetic components. We then examine the extent to which the genetic influences on body mass are different across the 134 schools in the study. Taking advantage of school differences in both health-related policies and social norms regarding body size, we examine how institutional resources and policies alter the relative impact of genetic influences on body mass. For the entire sample, we estimate a heritability of .82, with the remaining .18 due to unique environmental factors. However, we also show variation about this estimate and provide evidence suggesting that social norms and institutional policies often mask genetic vulnerabilities to increased weight. Empirically, we demonstrate that more restrictive school policies and policies designed to curb weight gain are also associated with decreases in the proportion of variance in body mass that is due to additive genetic influences.


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