Do Migrants Think Differently? Evidence from Eastern European and Post-Soviet States

2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 831-868 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruxanda Berlinschi ◽  
Ani Harutyunyan
Keyword(s):  
Risk Aversion ◽  
International Migration ◽  
The Other ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Risk Averse ◽  
Economic Liberalism ◽  
Self Selection ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Politically Active ◽  
Beliefs And Attitudes

This research investigates migrant self-selection on values, beliefs, and attitudes using data from Eastern European and former Soviet countries. We find that individuals who intend to emigrate are more politically active, more critical of governance and institutions, more tolerant toward other cultures, less tolerant of cheating, more optimistic, and less risk averse. With the exception of risk aversion, all selection patterns are heterogeneous across regions of origin. On the other hand, no self-selection pattern is detected on education, willingness to pay for public goods, and economic liberalism. These findings provide new insights into the determinants of international migration and reveal some of its less known consequences, such as a possible reduction of domestic pressure for political improvements in post-Soviet states due to politically active citizens’ higher propensity to emigrate.

Risk Aversion and Support for Merit Pay: Theory and Evidence from Minnesota's Q Comp Program

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Nadler ◽  
Matthew Wiswall
Keyword(s):  
School District ◽  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Merit Pay ◽  
Risk Averse ◽  
Master's Degrees ◽  
Base Salary ◽  
Relative Utility ◽  
Using Data

Recent research attributes the lack of merit pay in teaching to the resistance of teachers. This article examines whether the structure of merit pay affects the types of teachers who support it. We develop a model of the relative utility teachers receive from merit pay versus the current fixed schedule of raises. We show that if teachers are risk averse, teachers with higher base salaries would be more likely to support a merit pay program that allows them to keep their current base salary and risk only future salary increases. We test the predictions of the model using data from a new merit pay program, the Minnesota Q Comp program, which requires the approval of the teachers in each school district. Consistent with the model's predictions, we find that districts with higher base salaries and a higher proportion of teachers with master's degrees are more likely to approve merit pay.

Pesticide Use and Risk Aversion in the French Wine Sector

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joël Aka ◽  
Adeline Alonso Ugaglia ◽  
Jean-Marie Lescot
Keyword(s):  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Maximum Yield ◽  
The Other ◽  
Risk Attitudes ◽  
Pesticide Use ◽  
Risk Averse ◽  
Network Database ◽  
Farm Accountancy Data Network ◽  
Wine Sector ◽  
Jel Classifications

AbstractThis paper studies the risk attitudes of winegrowers in France. In French viticulture, most of the production is done under an appellation regime that constrains maximum authorized yields. We consider a trans-log cost function under the constraint of this maximum yield and estimate winegrowers' attitudes to risk. Our estimates are based on the European Farm Accountancy Data Network database (2005–2014) and data from the French National Institute of Origin and Quality. We find that winegrowers are risk averse. For the majority of winegrowers, risk aversion is declining with expected profit. In the Champagne region, however, where expected profits are far higher than in the other regions, we observe the reverse relation: winegrowers become more risk averse as expected profits rise. (JEL Classifications: C13, C33, O33, Q16).

Eliciting Risk Preferences and Elasticity of Substitution

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 314-329
Author(s):  
Johan Burgaard ◽  
Mogens Steffensen
Keyword(s):  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Discount Rate ◽  
Predictive Power ◽  
Recursive Utility ◽  
Risk Averse ◽  
Indirect Utility ◽  
Consistent Estimation ◽  
On Certainty ◽  
Certainty Equivalents ◽  
Elasticity Of Intertemporal Substitution

Risk aversion and elasticity of intertemporal substitution (EIS) are separated via the celebrated recursive utility building on certainty equivalents of indirect utility. Based on an alternative separation method, we formulate a questionnaire for simultaneous and consistent estimation of risk aversion, subjective discount rate, and EIS. From a representative group of 1,153 respondents, we estimate parameters for these preferences and their variability within the population. Risk aversion and the subjective discount rate are found to be in the orders of 2 and 0, respectively, not diverging far away from results from other studies. Our estimate of EIS in the order of 10 is larger than often reported. Background variables like age and income have little predictive power for the three estimates. Only gender has a significant influence on risk aversion in the usually perceived direction that females are more risk-averse than males. Using individual estimates of preference parameters, we find covariance between preferences toward risk and EIS. We present the background reasoning on objectives, the questionnaire, a statistical analysis of the results, and economic interpretations of these, including relations to the literature.

Foreign Aid and its Role in Maintaining the Exploitation of the Agricultural Sector: Evidence from a Case Study in Africa

1983 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Schuftan
Keyword(s):  
Rural Development ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
National Development ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sizable Proportion ◽  
Using Data ◽  
State Of Affairs

Today most foreign aid donors are genuinely committed to the idea that development in Third World countries should start with rural development. Therefore, a sizable proportion of their development funds are invested in rural projects. However, donors channel these funds through local governments (most often representing local bourgeois interests) that are not as committed to the principle of rural development. These governments are often also embarked in policies that are actually—directly or indirectly—expropriating the surpluses generated by agriculture and investing them in the other sectors of the economy. The peasants are therefore footing most of the bill of overall national development. This paper contends that, because of this state of affairs, foreign aid directed toward rural development is actually filling the investment gap left by an internal system of unequal returns to production in agriculture. In so doing, foreign aid is indirectly financing the development of the other sectors of the economy, even if this result is unintended. This perpetrates maldevelopment without redressing the basic exploitation process of peasants which lies at the core of underdevelopment. Evidence to support this hypothesis is presented using data from a primarily agricultural exporting country: the United Republic of Cameroon.

scholarly journals Market-based instruments for risk-averse farmers: rubber agroforest conservation in Jambi Province, Indonesia

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Utkur Djanibekov ◽  
Grace B. Villamor
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Real Options ◽  
Risk Averse ◽  
Variance Model ◽  
Income Uncertainty ◽  
Real Options Approach ◽  
Pigovian Taxes ◽  
Rubber Agroforest ◽  
Mean Variance

AbstractThis paper investigates the effectiveness of different market-based instruments (MBIs), such as eco-certification premiums, carbon payments, Pigovian taxes and their combination, to address the conversion of agroforests to monoculture systems and subsequent effects on incomes of risk-averse farmers under income uncertainty in Indonesia. For these, the authors develop a farm-level dynamic mean-variance model combined with a real options approach. Findings show that the conservation of agroforest is responsive to the risk-aversion level of farmers: the greater the level of risk aversion, the greater is the conserved area of agroforest. However, for all risk-averse farmers, additional incentives in the form of MBIs are still needed to prevent conversion of agroforest over the years, and only the combination of MBIs can achieve this target. Implementing fixed MBIs also contributes to stabilizing farmers’ incomes and reducing income risks. Consequently, the combined MBIs increase incomes and reduce income inequality between hardly and extremely risk-averse farmers.

scholarly journals OPTIMAL OUTCOME SHARING WITH A CONSORTIUM OF CONTRACTORS

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 655-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Mahdi HOSSEINIAN ◽  
David G. CARMICHAEL
Keyword(s):  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Risk Attitude ◽  
Risk Averse ◽  
Optimal Outcome ◽  
Original Solution ◽  
Project Outcome ◽  
Risk Neutral ◽  
Current Practices

Where a consortium of contractors is involved, there exist no guidelines in the literature on what the outcome sharing arrangement should be. The paper addresses this shortfall. It derives the optimal outcome sharing arrangement for risk-neutral and risk-averse contractors within the consortium, and between the consortium and a risk-neutral owner. Practitioners were engaged in a designed exercise in order to validate the paper’s propositions. The paper demonstrates that, at the optimum: the proportion of outcome sharing among contractors with the same risk-attitude should reflect the levels of their contributions; the proportion of outcome sharing among contractors with the same level of contribu­tion should be lower for contractors with higher levels of risk aversion; a consortium of risk-neutral contractors should receive or bear any favourable or adverse project outcome respectively; and the proportion of outcome sharing to a con­sortium of risk-averse contractors should reduce, and the fixed component of the consortium fee should increase, when the contractors become more risk-averse or the level of the project outcome uncertainty increases. The paper proposes an original solution to the optimal sharing problem in contracts with a consortium of contractors, thereby contributing to current practices in contracts management.

scholarly journals Cannulation technique and complications in arteriovenous fistulas: a Swedish Renal Registry-based cohort study

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Staaf ◽  
Anders Fernström ◽  
Fredrik Uhlin
Keyword(s):  
Cohort Study ◽  
Lower Risk ◽  
Rate Ratio ◽  
Incidence Rate Ratio ◽  
National Registry ◽  
The Other ◽  
Arteriovenous Fistulas ◽  
Cannulation Technique ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Background The four cannulation techniques, rope ladder (RL), area puncture (AP), buttonhole with blunt needles (BHb), and buttonhole with sharp needles (BHs), affects the arteriovenous fistula (AVF) in different ways. The aim of this study was to describe the relationship between the different cannulation techniques and the occurrence of AVF complications. Methods The study was performed as a national registry-based cohort study using data from the Swedish Renal Registry (SRR). Data were collected from January 2014 to October 2019. Seventy of Sweden’s dialysis units participate in the registry. We analyzed a total of 1328 AVFs in this study. The risk of complications was compared between the four different cannulation techniques. The risk of AVF complications was measured by the incidence and incidence rate ratio (IRR). We compared the IRRs of complications between different cannulation techniques. Results BHs is the most common cannulation technique in Sweden. It has been used in 55% of the AVFs at some point during their functional patency. BHb (29%), RL (13%), and AP (3%) has been used less. BHb had the lowest risk of complications compared to the other techniques, and a significantly lower risk of stenosis, infiltration, cannulation difficulties, compared to RL and BHs. Cannulation difficulties were significantly more common using AP compared to BHs, and BHb. Infections were not significantly increased using the buttonhole technique. Conclusions BHb had the lowest risk of complications. Infections were not significantly increased using the buttonhole technique. Dialysis units with a low infection rate may continue to use the buttonhole technique, as the risk of complications is lower.

Cutoff Threshold Decisions for Classification Algorithms with Risk Aversion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea C. Hupman
Keyword(s):  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Risk Attitude ◽  
Classification Algorithm ◽  
Classification Algorithms ◽  
Risk Averse ◽  
Optimal Cutoff ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Risk Neutral ◽  
Bayes Algorithm ◽  
Cutoff Threshold

Classification algorithms predict the class membership of an unknown record. Methods such as logistic regression or the naïve Bayes algorithm produce a score related to the likelihood that a record belongs to a particular class. A cutoff threshold is then defined to delineate the prediction of one class over another. This paper derives analytic results for the selection of an optimal cutoff threshold for a classification algorithm that is used to inform a two-action decision in the cases of risk aversion and risk neutrality. The results provide insight to how the optimal cutoff thresholds relate to the associated costs and the sensitivity and specificity of the algorithm for both the risk neutral and risk averse decision makers. The optimal risk averse threshold is not reliably above or below the optimal risk neutral threshold, but the relation depends on the parameters of a particular application. The results further show the risk averse optimal threshold is insensitive to the size of the data set or the magnitude of the costs, but instead is sensitive to the proportion of positive records in the data and the ratio of costs. Numeric examples and sensitivity analysis derive further insight. Results show the percent value gap from a misspecified risk attitude increases as the specificity of the classification algorithm decreases.

Alignment, persuasiveness and the putative reader in opinion writing

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-273
Author(s):  
Peter R. R. White
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
English Language ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
The Other ◽  
Virtual Model ◽  
Language Version ◽  
Yasukuni Shrine ◽  
Beliefs And Attitudes ◽  
China Daily ◽  
Opinion Writing

Abstract This paper explores a new line of analysis for comparing opinion writing by reference to differences in the relationships being indicated between author and addressee. It draws on recent work within the appraisal framework literature to offer proposals for linguistics-based analyses of what has variously been termed the ‘intended’, ‘imagined’, ‘ideal’, ‘virtual’, ‘model’, ‘implied’ and ‘putative’ reader (the ‘reader written into the text’). A discussion is provided of those means by which beliefs, attitudes and expectations are projected onto this ‘reader in the text’, formulations which signal anticipations that the reader either shares the attitude or belief currently being advanced by the author, potentially finds it novel or otherwise problematic, or may reject it outright. The discussion is conducted with respect to written, persuasive texts, and specifically with respect to news journalism’s commentary pieces. It is proposed that such texts can usefully be characterised and compared by reference to tendencies in such ‘construals’ or ‘positionings’ of the putative reader – tendencies in terms of whether the signalled anticipation is of the reader being aligned or, conversely, potentially unaligned or dis-aligned with the author. The terms ‘flag waving’ and ‘advocacy’ are proposed as characterisations which can be applied to texts, with ‘flag waving’ applicable to texts which construe the reader as largely sharing the author’s beliefs and attitudes, while ‘advocacy’ is applicable to texts where the reader is construed as actually or potentially not sharing the author’s beliefs and attitudes and thereby needing to be won over. This line of analysis is demonstrated through a comparison of two journalistic opinion pieces written in response to visits by Japanese politicians to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, one published in the English-language version of the mainland China newspaper, China Daily and one in the English-language version of the Japanese Asahi Shimbun. It is shown that one piece can usefully be characterised as oriented towards ‘flag waving’ and the other towards ‘advocacy’.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document