scholarly journals Financial Stress and Health Considerations: A Tradeoff in the Reopening Decisions of U.S. Liberal Arts Colleges during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 382
Author(s):  
Jonah Tobin ◽  
Oliver Hall ◽  
Jacob Lazris ◽  
David Zimmerman
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts Colleges ◽  
Choice Model ◽  
School Administrators ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Adverse Health Outcomes ◽  
Financially Distressed ◽  
Multinomial Choice

This paper presents empirical evidence on factors influencing choices made by members of the Annapolis Group of Liberal Arts colleges regarding whether to operate primarily in-person, primarily online or some flexible alternative during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. This paper examines the tradeoff between public health risks and financial standing that school administrators faced when deciding reopening plans. Because in-person instruction at colleges and universities had large effects on COVID-19 case rates, it is critical to understand what caused these decisions. We used binary and multinomial probit models to evaluate an original data set of publicly available data as well as data from the College Crisis Initiative. Binary and multinomial choice model estimates suggest that conditional upon the prevailing level of COVID-19 in their county, financially distressed colleges were approximately 20 percentage points more likely to opt for primarily in-person operations than less financially distressed colleges. These choices highlight an important potential tradeoff between public health and financial concerns present in the higher education sector and emphasize the need for public spending to mitigate adverse health outcomes if a similar situation occurs again.

A Hybrid Choice Model that Uses Actual and Ordered Attribute Value Information

2005 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anand V. Bodapati ◽  
Aimee Drolet
Keyword(s):  
Choice Model ◽  
Continuous Functions ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Product Categories ◽  
Psychological Evidence ◽  
Multinomial Choice ◽  
Decision Mechanisms ◽  
Value Model ◽  
Price Differences ◽  
Two Hybrid

In the usual multinomial choice model, consumers choose to use “actual value” information; that is, utilities are continuous functions of product attributes (e.g., choices depend on actual magnitudes of price differences). The authors propose an alternative model in which consumers use only “ordered value” information; that is, utilities are functions only of the relative orderings of the attributes' values across alternatives (e.g., choices depend only on the price ordering and not on actual prices). The ordered value model is attractive because it fits well with psychological evidence that consumers often favor decision mechanisms that are cognitively less demanding. Using a supermarket shopper panel data set, the authors evaluate four models in which (1) all consumers use actual values; (2) all consumers use ordered values; (3) some consumers use actual values all the time, and some consumers use ordered values all the time; and (4) all consumers use both actual values and ordered values but with different propensities. In the analysis, the ordered value model finds stronger support than the actual value model: Model 1 outperforms Model 2; in the two hybrid choice models (Models 3 and 4), ordered value processing is more prevalent than actual value processing. These results suggest that consumers in some product categories engage more heavily in ordered value processing than in actual value processing.

Rationalization and Student/School Personhood in U.S. College Admissions: The Rise of Test-optional Policies, 1987 to 2015

2017 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 236-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jared Furuta
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts Colleges ◽  
College Admissions ◽  
The United States ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Admissions Policies ◽  
Test Optional ◽  
Admissions Process

This article examines the rise of ‘‘test-optional’’ college admissions policies since the 1990s. I argue that the rationalization of college admissions policies after World War II contributed to the rise of ‘‘meritocratic’’ stratification (in policy) and standardized tests, like the SAT, but it also led to the expansion and legitimation of the roles of student and school personhood in the admissions process. Schools more committed to enlarged conceptions of student personhood are more likely to adopt a test-optional policy, in order to recruit students who fit the distinctive characteristics of their school identity. To test the argument, I use a comprehensive data set of 1,640 colleges and universities in the United States and discrete-time event history models from 1987 to 2015. I also assess alternative arguments that emphasize economic or prestige-driven motives. Liberal arts colleges and schools committed to several dimensions of student personhood are more likely to adopt test-optional policies, net of other factors.

Rotational Characteristics of the Green Solar Corona: 1947-1991

1994 ◽  
Vol 144 ◽  
pp. 139-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Rybák ◽  
V. Rušin ◽  
M. Rybanský
Keyword(s):  
Solar Corona ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Rotation Period ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Coronal Emission ◽  
Time Intervals ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The World ◽  
Coronal Emission Line ◽  
Homogeneous Data

AbstractFe XIV 530.3 nm coronal emission line observations have been used for the estimation of the green solar corona rotation. A homogeneous data set, created from measurements of the world-wide coronagraphic network, has been examined with a help of correlation analysis to reveal the averaged synodic rotation period as a function of latitude and time over the epoch from 1947 to 1991.The values of the synodic rotation period obtained for this epoch for the whole range of latitudes and a latitude band ±30° are 27.52±0.12 days and 26.95±0.21 days, resp. A differential rotation of green solar corona, with local period maxima around ±60° and minimum of the rotation period at the equator, was confirmed. No clear cyclic variation of the rotation has been found for examinated epoch but some monotonic trends for some time intervals are presented.A detailed investigation of the original data and their correlation functions has shown that an existence of sufficiently reliable tracers is not evident for the whole set of examinated data. This should be taken into account in future more precise estimations of the green corona rotation period.

Electing the Senate

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy J. Schiller ◽  
Charles Stewart III
Keyword(s):  
Original Data ◽  
State Legislators ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Senate Elections ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Seventeenth Amendment ◽  
The People ◽  
Election Process

From 1789 to 1913, U.S. senators were not directly elected by the people—instead the Constitution mandated that they be chosen by state legislators. This radically changed in 1913, when the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, giving the public a direct vote. This book investigates the electoral connections among constituents, state legislators, political parties, and U.S. senators during the age of indirect elections. The book finds that even though parties controlled the partisan affiliation of the winning candidate for Senate, they had much less control over the universe of candidates who competed for votes in Senate elections and the parties did not always succeed in resolving internal conflict among their rank and file. Party politics, money, and personal ambition dominated the election process, in a system originally designed to insulate the Senate from public pressure. The book uses an original data set of all the roll call votes cast by state legislators for U.S. senators from 1871 to 1913 and all state legislators who served during this time. Newspaper and biographical accounts uncover vivid stories of the political maneuvering, corruption, and partisanship—played out by elite political actors, from elected officials, to party machine bosses, to wealthy business owners—that dominated the indirect Senate elections process. The book raises important questions about the effectiveness of Constitutional reforms, such as the Seventeenth Amendment, that promised to produce a more responsive and accountable government.

Rethinking Liberal Education

1996 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Education ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts Colleges ◽  
Approaches To Learning ◽  
Academic Departments ◽  
Substantial Contribution ◽  
Howard Gardner ◽  
Ernest Boyer ◽  
Education Needs ◽  
Changing Times

Liberal education has always had its share of theorists, believers, and detractors, both inside and outside the academy. The best of these have been responsible for the development of the concept, and of its changing tradition. Drawn from a symposium jointly sponsored by the Educational Leadership program and the American Council of Learned Societies, this work looks at the requirements of liberal education for the next century and the strategies for getting there. With contributions from Leon Botstein, Ernest Boyer, Howard Gardner, Stanley Katz, Bruce Kimball, Peter Lyman, Susan Resneck Pierce, Adam Yarmolinsky and Frank Wong, Rethinking Liberal Education proposes better ways of connecting the curriculum and organization of liberal arts colleges with today's challenging economic and social realities. The authors push for greater flexibility in the organizational structure of academic departments, and argue that faculty should play a greater role in the hard discussions that shape their institutions. Through the implementation of interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches to learning, along with better integration of the curriculum with the professional and vocational aspects of the institution, this work proposes to restore vitality to the curriculum. The concept of rethinking liberal education does not mean the same thing to every educator. To one, it may mean a strategic shift in requirements, to another the reformulation of the underlying philosophy to meet changing times. Any significant reform in education needs careful thought and discussion. Rethinking Liberal Education makes a substantial contribution to such debates. It will be of interest to scholars and students, administrators, and anyone concerned with the issues of modern education.

Styles of Representation in Constituencies in the Homeland and Abroad: The Case of Italy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Østergaard-Nielsen ◽  
Stefano Camatarri
Keyword(s):  
Original Data ◽  
Role Orientation ◽  
International Mobility ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Democratic Representation ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
At Home

Abstract The role orientation of political representatives and candidates is a longstanding concern in studies of democratic representation. The growing trend in countries to allow citizens abroad to candidate in homeland elections from afar provides an interesting opportunity for understanding how international mobility and context influences ideas of representation among these emigrant candidates. In public debates, emigrant candidates are often portrayed as delegates of the emigrant constituencies. However, drawing on the paradigmatic case of Italy and an original data set comprising emigrant candidates, we show that the perceptions of styles of representation abroad are more complex. Systemic differences between electoral districts at home and abroad are relevant for explaining why and how candidates develop a trustee or delegate orientation.

Do the Heterogeneous Determinants of Repayment Affect Differently across Borrowers of Diverse Credit Sources in Rural Assam? A Double Hurdle Approach

2021 ◽  
pp. 245513332110316
Author(s):  
Tiken Das ◽  
Pradyut Guha ◽  
Diganta Das
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Probit Model ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Brahmaputra Valley ◽  
Double Hurdle ◽  
Instrumental Variable Probit ◽  
Instrumental Variable Probit Model

This study made an attempt to answer the question: Do the heterogeneous determinants of repayment affect the borrowers of diverse credit sources differently? The study is based on data collected from 240 households from three districts in the lower Brahmaputra valley of Assam through a carefully designed primary survey. Besides, the study uses the double hurdle approach and the instrumental variable probit model to reduce possible selection bias. It observes better repayment performance among formal borrowers, followed by semiformal borrowers, while occupation wise it is prominent among organised employees. It has been found that in general, the household characteristics, loan characteristics and location-specific characteristics significantly affect repayment performance of borrowers. However, the nature of impact of the factors influencing repayment performance is remarkably different across credit sources. It ignores the role of traditional community-based organisations in rural Assam while analysing the determinants of repayment performance. The study also recommends for ensuring productive opportunities and efficient market linkages in rural areas of Assam. The study is based on an original data set that has specially been collected to examine question that—do the heterogeneous determinants of repayment affect the borrowers of diverse credit sources differently in the lower Brahmaputra valley of Assam—which has not been studied before.

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