scholarly journals Official advice improves mortgage-holders’ perceptions of switching: experimental evidence

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
SHANE TIMMONS ◽  
MARTINA BARJAKOVÁ ◽  
TERENCE J. MCELVANEY ◽  
PETER D. LUNN
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rate ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Consumer Protection ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Switching Process ◽  
Protection Agency ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Change Perceptions ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Encouraging consumers to switch to lower-rate mortgages is important both for the individual consumer's finances and for functioning competitive markets, but switching rates are low. Given the complexity of mortgages, one potential regulatory intervention that may increase switching rates is to provide independent advice on how to select good mortgage products and how to navigate the switching process. Working with a government consumer protection agency, we conducted an experiment with mortgage-holders to test whether such advice alters perceptions of switching. The experiment tested how the attributes of the offer, perceptions about the switching process, individual feelings of competence and comprehension of the product affect willingness to switch to better offers, both before and after reading the official advice. The advice made consumers more sensitive to interest rate decreases, especially over longer terms. It also increased consumers’ confidence in their ability to select good offers. Overall, the findings imply that advice from policy-makers can change perceptions and increase switching rates. Moreover, the experiment demonstrates how lab studies can contribute to behaviourally informed policy development.

Official Advice Improves Mortgage-Holders’ Perceptions of Switching: Experimental Evidence

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shane Timmons
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rate ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Consumer Protection ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Switching Process ◽  
Competitive Markets ◽  
Protection Agency ◽  
Change Perceptions ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Individual

Encouraging consumers to switch to lower-rate mortgages is important both for the individual consumer’s finances and for functioning competitive markets, but switching rates are low. Given the complexity of mortgages, one potential regulatory intervention that may increase switching rates is to provide independent advice on how to select good mortgage products and how to navigate the switching process. Working with a government consumer protection agency, we conducted an experiment with mortgage-holders to test whether such advice alters perceptions of switching. The experiment tested how (i) the attributes of the offer, (ii) perceptions about the switching process, (iii) individual feelings of competence and (iv) comprehension of the product affect willingness to switch to better offers, both before and after reading the official advice. The advice made consumers more sensitive to interest rate decreases, especially at longer terms. It also increased consumers’ confidence in their ability to select good offers. Overall, the findings imply that advice from policymakers can change perceptions and increase switching rates. Moreover, the experiment demonstrates how lab studies can contribute to behaviourally-informed policy development.

scholarly journals Social Capital Changes After COVID-19 Lockdown Among Youths in China: COVID-19 Impact on Lifestyle Change Survey (COINLICS)

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Yu ◽  
Miyang Luo ◽  
Meijing Liu ◽  
Junmin Zhou ◽  
Shujuan Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Lifestyle Change ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Educational Levels ◽  
Chinese Youth ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Four Levels ◽  
The Individual

Introduction: Social capital, the effective functioning of social groups through networks of relationships, can affect mental health and may be affected by COVID-19. We aimed to examine the changes in social capital before and after the COVID-19 lockdown among the Chinese youth.Methods: A national convenience sample of 10,540 high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, from the COVID-19 Impact on Lifestyle Change Survey (COINLICS), reported their demographic and social capital information before and after the COVID-19 lockdown. Social capital was retrospectively measured at four levels: individual (ISC), family (FSC), community (CSC), and society (SSC). The changes of social capital were also compared across three educational levels.Results: Overall, ISC and CSC scores generally decreased after lockdown (15.1 to 14.8 and 13.4 to 13.1, respectively), while FSC and SSC scores increased significantly (12.7 to 13.0 and 7.1 to 7.2, respectively). At the individual level, most participants showed a constant perceived social capital; more of the remaining participants showed decreased than increased ISC (30.5% vs. 17.0%) and CSC scores (28.4% vs. 19.1%), while more participants showed increased than decreased FSC (21.7% vs. 9.2%) and SSC scores (10.3% vs. 3.9%). Heterogeneities in social capital changes existed across educational levels.Conclusions: Our findings would provide health professionals and policy-makers solid evidence on the changes in social capital of youths after lockdowns, and therefore help the design of future interventions to rebuild or improve their social capital after epidemics/disasters.

Executive Constraint and Sovereign Debt: Quasi-Experimental Evidence From Argentina During the Baring Crisis

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (11) ◽  
pp. 1504-1525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary W. Cox ◽  
Sebastian M. Saiegh
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Sovereign Debt ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
Unit Of Analysis ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Executive Discretion ◽  
Individual Bond ◽  
The Individual

The literature on whether executive constraint improves the credibility of sovereign debt takes the political regime as the unit of analysis, typically computing an average yield or price for each regime, and then relating that average to regime characteristics. In this article, we take the individual bond issue as the unit of analysis, examining quasi-experimental evidence from two Argentine sovereign debts issued in the 1880s. The loans were sought by the same government and offered nearly identical terms to borrowers, except that one was funded and the other was unfunded. The loans sold at virtually the same price until the Baring crisis of November 16, 1890 erupted. Thereafter, their price histories diverged markedly. We analyze the market’s evolving valuation of the two loans before and after the Baring crisis using a difference-in-differences estimator and weekly price data. Our study shows that exposure to executive discretion strongly influences market assessments of value.

scholarly journals The Global Equilibrium Real Interest Rate: Concepts, Estimates, and Challenges

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 305-326
Author(s):  
Michael T. Kiley
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rate ◽  
Interest Rates ◽  
Term Structure ◽  
Real Interest Rate ◽  
Individual Country ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Global Trend ◽  
Advanced Economies ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Equilibrium Real Interest Rate

Real interest rates have been persistently below historical norms over the past decade, leading economists and policy makers to view the equilibrium real interest rate as likely to be low for some time. Various definitions and approaches to estimating the equilibrium real interest rate are examined, including approaches based on the term structure of interest rates and small macroeconomic models. The individual country approaches common in the literature are extended to allow for global trend and cyclical factors. The analysis finds that global factors dominate the downward trend in the equilibrium interest rate across 13 advanced economies. A corollary of this finding is that the U.S. equilibrium rate can be informed by global developments and is recently lower than estimated in U.S.-only studies. The analysis also highlights how the common global trend confounds empirical assessments of the determinants of movements in the equilibrium rate and the need to better integrate term-structure and macroeconomic approaches.

Quality of Life for Children with Persistent Sinonasal Symptoms

2003 ◽  
Vol 128 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Kay ◽  
Richard M. Rosenfeld
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Clinical Care ◽  
Longitudinal Change ◽  
Good Test ◽  
Routine Clinical Care ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Sinonasal Symptoms

OBJECTIVE: The goal was to validate the SN-5 survey as a measure of longitudinal change in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for children with persistent sinonasal symptoms. DESIGN AND SETTING: We conducted a before and after study of 85 children aged 2 to 12 years in a metropolitan pediatric otolaryngology practice. Caregivers completed the SN-5 survey at entry and at least 4 weeks later. The survey included 5 symptom-cluster items covering the domains of sinus infection, nasal obstruction, allergy symptoms, emotional distress, and activity limitations. RESULTS: Good test-retest reliability ( R = 0.70) was obtained for the overall SN-5 score and the individual survey items ( R ≥ 0.58). The mean baseline SN-5 score was 3.8 (SD, 1.0) of a maximum of 7.0, with higher scores indicating poorer HRQoL. All SN-5 items had adequate correlation ( R ≥ 0.36) with external constructs. The mean change in SN-5 score after routine clinical care was 0.88 (SD, 1.19) with an effect size of 0.74 indicating good responsiveness to longitudinal change. The change scores correlated appropriately with changes in related external constructs ( R ≥ 0.42). CONCLUSIONS: The SN-5 is a valid, reliable, and responsive measure of HRQoL for children with persistent sinonasal symptoms, suitable for use in outcomes studies and routine clinical care.

scholarly journals General psychopathology links burden of recent life events and psychotic symptoms in a network approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda T. Betz ◽  
◽  
Nora Penzel ◽  
Lana Kambeitz-Ilankovic ◽  
Marlene Rosen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Events ◽  
Childhood Trauma ◽  
Negative Symptoms ◽  
Psychotic Symptoms ◽  
Network Approach ◽  
General Psychopathology ◽  
Recent Onset ◽  
Syndrome Scale ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Individual

AbstractRecent life events have been implicated in the onset and progression of psychosis. However, psychological processes that account for the association are yet to be fully understood. Using a network approach, we aimed to identify pathways linking recent life events and symptoms observed in psychosis. Based on previous literature, we hypothesized that general symptoms would mediate between recent life events and psychotic symptoms. We analyzed baseline data of patients at clinical high risk for psychosis and with recent-onset psychosis (n = 547) from the Personalised Prognostic Tools for Early Psychosis Management (PRONIA) study. In a network analysis, we modeled links between the burden of recent life events and all individual symptoms of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale before and after controlling for childhood trauma. To investigate the longitudinal associations between burden of recent life events and symptoms, we analyzed multiwave panel data from seven timepoints up to month 18. Corroborating our hypothesis, burden of recent life events was connected to positive and negative symptoms through general psychopathology, specifically depression, guilt feelings, anxiety and tension, even after controlling for childhood trauma. Longitudinal modeling indicated that on average, burden of recent life events preceded general psychopathology in the individual. In line with the theory of an affective pathway to psychosis, recent life events may lead to psychotic symptoms via heightened emotional distress. Life events may be one driving force of unspecific, general psychopathology described as characteristic of early phases of the psychosis spectrum, offering promising avenues for interventions.

scholarly journals One size does not fit all: Constructing complementary digital reskilling strategies using online labour market data

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 205395172110031
Author(s):  
Fabian Stephany
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
Grand Challenge ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
National Education ◽  
Global Challenge ◽  
Cognitive Work ◽  
National Education Systems ◽  
Skill Requirements ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Value Of Learning

Digital technologies are radically transforming our work environments and demand for skills, with certain jobs being automated away and others demanding mastery of new digital techniques. This global challenge of rapidly changing skill requirements due to task automation overwhelms workers. The digital skill gap widens further as technological and social transformation outpaces national education systems and precise skill requirements for mastering emerging technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, remain opaque. Online labour platforms could help us to understand this grand challenge of reskilling en masse. Online labour platforms build a globally integrated market that mediates between millions of buyers and sellers of remotely deliverable cognitive work. This commentary argues that, over the last decade, online labour platforms have become the ‘laboratories’ of skill rebundling; the combination of skills from different occupational domains. Online labour platform data allows us to establish a new taxonomy on the individual complementarity of skills. For policy makers, education providers and recruiters, a continuous analysis of complementary reskilling trajectories enables automated, individual and far-sighted suggestions on the value of learning a new skill in a future of technological disruption.

Adaptive Precision Block-Jacobi for High Performance Preconditioning in the Ginkgo Linear Algebra Software

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Goran Flegar ◽  
Hartwig Anzt ◽  
Terry Cojean ◽  
Enrique S. Quintana-Ortí
Keyword(s):  
Linear Algebra ◽  
Graphics Processing Units ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Numerical Algorithms ◽  
Mixed Precision ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Memory Accesses ◽  
Specialized Hardware ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Graphics Processing

The use of mixed precision in numerical algorithms is a promising strategy for accelerating scientific applications. In particular, the adoption of specialized hardware and data formats for low-precision arithmetic in high-end GPUs (graphics processing units) has motivated numerous efforts aiming at carefully reducing the working precision in order to speed up the computations. For algorithms whose performance is bound by the memory bandwidth, the idea of compressing its data before (and after) memory accesses has received considerable attention. One idea is to store an approximate operator–like a preconditioner–in lower than working precision hopefully without impacting the algorithm output. We realize the first high-performance implementation of an adaptive precision block-Jacobi preconditioner which selects the precision format used to store the preconditioner data on-the-fly, taking into account the numerical properties of the individual preconditioner blocks. We implement the adaptive block-Jacobi preconditioner as production-ready functionality in the Ginkgo linear algebra library, considering not only the precision formats that are part of the IEEE standard, but also customized formats which optimize the length of the exponent and significand to the characteristics of the preconditioner blocks. Experiments run on a state-of-the-art GPU accelerator show that our implementation offers attractive runtime savings.

scholarly journals Micromagnetic Characterization of Operation-Induced Damage in Charpy Specimens of RPV Steels

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 2917
Author(s):  
Madalina Rabung ◽  
Melanie Kopp ◽  
Antal Gasparics ◽  
Gábor Vértesy ◽  
Ildikó Szenthe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neutron Irradiation ◽  
Pressure Vessel ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Magnetic Characteristics ◽  
Pressure Vessel Steel ◽  
Training Procedure ◽  
Vessel Steel ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Magnetic Adaptive Testing

The embrittlement of two types of nuclear pressure vessel steel, 15Kh2NMFA and A508 Cl.2, was studied using two different methods of magnetic nondestructive testing: micromagnetic multiparameter microstructure and stress analysis (3MA-X8) and magnetic adaptive testing (MAT). The microstructure and mechanical properties of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) materials are modified due to neutron irradiation; this material degradation can be characterized using magnetic methods. For the first time, the progressive change in material properties due to neutron irradiation was investigated on the same specimens, before and after neutron irradiation. A correlation was found between magnetic characteristics and neutron-irradiation-induced damage, regardless of the type of material or the applied measurement technique. The results of the individual micromagnetic measurements proved their suitability for characterizing the degradation of RPV steel caused by simulated operating conditions. A calibration/training procedure was applied on the merged outcome of both testing methods, producing excellent results in predicting transition temperature, yield strength, and mechanical hardness for both materials.

scholarly journals Time, the deer, is in the wood: Chronotopic identities, trajectories of texts and community self-management

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Bartlett
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Text Analysis ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Self Management ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Public Issues ◽  
Relevant Context ◽  
The Individual

AbstractThis paper opens with a problematisation of the notion of real-time in discourse analysis – dissected, as it is, as if time unfolded in a linear and regular procession at the speed of speech. To illustrate this point, the author combines Hasan’s concept of “relevant context” with Bakhtin’s notion of the chronotope to provide an analysis of Sorley MacLean’s poem Hallaig, with its deep-rootedness in space and its dissolution of time. The remainder of the paper is dedicated to following the poem’s metamorphoses and trajectory as it intertwines with Bartlett’s own life and family history, creating a layered simultaneity of meanings orienting to multiple semio-historic centres. In this way the author (pers. comm.) “sets out to illustrate in theory, text analysis and (self-)history the trajectories taken by texts as they cross through time and space; their interconnectedness with social systems at different scales; and the manner in which they are revoiced in order to enhance their legitimacy before the diverse audiences they encounter on their migratory paths.” In this process, Bartlett relates his own story to the socioeconomic concerns of the Hebridean island where his father was raised, and to dialogues between local communities and national and external policy-makers – so echoing Denzin’s call (2014. Interpretive Autoethnography (2nd Edition). Los Angeles: Sage: vii) to “develop a methodology that allows us examine how the private troubles of individuals are connected to public issues and to public responses to these troubles”. Bartlett presents his data through a range of legitimation strategies and voicing techniques, creating transgressive texts that question received notions of identity, authorship, legitimacy and authenticity in academia, the portals of power, and the routines of daily life. The current Abstract is one such example. As with the author’s closing caveat on the potential dangers of self-revelation, offered, no doubt, as a flimsy justification for the extensive focus in the paper on his own life as a chronotope, I leave it for the individual reader to decide if Bartlett’s approach is ultimately ludic or simply ludicrous.

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