Can Simple Psychological Interventions Increase Preventive Health Investment?

Behavioral constraints may explain part of low demand for preventive health products. We test the effects of two light-touch psychological interventions on water chlorination and related health and economic outcomes using a randomized controlled trial among 3750 women in rural Kenya. One intervention encourages participants to visualize alternative realizations of the future; one builds participants’ ability to make concrete plans. After 12 weeks, visualization increases objectively measured chlorination, reduces diarrhea episodes among children, and increases savings. Effects on chlorination and savings persist after almost three years. Effects of the planning intervention are weaker and largely insignificant. Analysis of mechanisms suggests both interventions increase self-efficacy – beliefs about one’s ability to achieve desired outcomes. Visualization also increases participants’ skill in forecasting their future utility (Gabaix and Laibson 2017). The interventions do not differentially affect beliefs and knowledge about chlorination. Results suggest simple psychological interventions can increase future-oriented behaviors, including use of preventive health technologies.

Practical lessons for creating affordance-based interventions for sustainable behavior change

Radical collective behavior change is required to develop sustainable forms of urban life. This demands redesign of everyday environments. However, the ways in which our material world shape our behaviors are still understudied and underappreciated. Not much is known about how collective behaviors are facilitated through infrastructural or material interventions. Here, we draw upon 15 years of experience at RAAAF, an Amsterdam-based collective for visual art and architecture, to introduce ten practical lessons for developing strategic design interventions for affordance-based behavior change in urban environments. Affordances are the possibilities for action provided by the environment. Strategic design interventions aim to set collective social change in motion by developing sustainable affordances and dismantling unsustainable behavioral constraints. Strategic design interventions seek to inspire policies and public imagination. Whereas scientific studies aim to describe reality as it is, RAAAF’s material interventions help imagine how the shared urban environment could be in the future.

Behavioral Constraints on the Design of Subgame-Perfect Implementation Mechanisms

We study subgame-perfect implementation (SPI) mechanisms that have been proposed as a solution to incomplete contracting problems. We show that these mechanisms, which are based on off-equilibrium arbitration clauses that impose large fines for lying and the inappropriate use of arbitration, have severe behavioral constraints because the fines induce retaliation against legitimate uses of arbitration. Incorporating reciprocity preferences into the theory explains the observed behavioral patterns and helps us develop a new mechanism that is more robust and achieves high rates of truth-telling and efficiency. Our results highlight the importance of tailoring implementation mechanisms to the underlying behavioral environment. (JEL C92, D44, D82, D86, D91)

Curating Local Knowledge: Experimental Evidence from Small Retailers in Indonesia

Business practices and performance vary widely across businesses within the same sector. A key outstanding question is why profitable practices do not readily diffuse. We conduct a field experiment among urban retailers in Indonesia to study whether alleviating informational and behavioral frictions can facilitate such diffusion in a cost-effective manner. Through quantitative and qualitative fieldwork, we curate a handbook that associates locally relevant practices with performance, and provides idiosyncratic implementation guidance informed by exemplary local retailers. We complement this handbook with two light-touch interventions to facilitate behavior change. A subset of retailers is invited to a documentary movie screening featuring the paths to success of exemplary peers. Another subset is offered two 30 minute personal visits by a local facilitator. A third group is offered both. Eighteen months later, we find significant impacts on practice adoption when the handbook is coupled with the two behavioral nudges, and up to a 35% increase in profits and 16.7% increase in sales. These findings suggest both informational and behavioral constraints are at play. The types of practices adopted map the performance improvements to efficiency gains rather than other channels. A simple cost-benefit analysis shows such locally relevant knowledge can be codified and scaled successfully at relatively low cost.

PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS ENTITIES SOCIO-ECONOMIC INTERACTION IN THE CONDITIONS OF GLOBAL CHALLENGES

The definitions of interaction as a socio-economic category, the main categories of the methodological basis of socio-economic interaction are analyzed. The concept of "interaction" can be defined as a system of joint actions of several objects or entities, in which the action result of one of them affects the others. Global challenges lead to the need to change the interaction basis of economic entities due to the natural change of the general socio-economic and political-ideological formation of social development, which necessitates the definition and analysis of basic principles of business entities interaction in various global challenges. The basic principles of business entities socio-economic interaction in the context of global challenges are identified, among which the principle of commonality and feedback; openness and transparency; responsibility, the principle of professionalism and efficiency; social justice and corporate responsibility; concentrating on short-term planning and moving some issues from long-term to short-term planning; the principle of strategicity and changes in long-term development strategies; the principle of ethics; innovation and creativity of interaction; the principle of globality and global security; the principle of systematics and pluralism; tolerance and inclusion; integrity; the principle of changing established ties due to global political instability; the principle of global community; dynamism; laying a higher level of risk; compliance with environmental regulations and the principle of minimizing conflicts and institutionalizing compromises during interaction. In the context of global challenges and shocks, businesses are encouraged to abandon socio-economic determinism and resort to creative, innovative interaction because in the context of global challenges, creativity, innovation, knowledge, access to information, the ability to interact in socio-behavioral constraints are powerful engines of development of states, business entities and individuals. Creative interaction should be a constantly changing concept based on creative forms of cooperation, the result of which is not only survival in global shocks and imbalances, but also the activities of economic entities capable of generating impact on economic growth and development.

PENGENDALIAN BIAYA BAHAN BAKU PRODUKSI MELALUI SISTEM PENGENDALIAN AKTIFITAS DALAM ANALISA RANTAI NILAI PRODUKSI PERUSAHAAN

Introduction: CV. X merupakan perusahaan roti Wholesaler yang memegang lisensi CJ Culinary Concept Holding dan memiliki 3 gerai (outlet) di Surabaya. Masalah yang dihadapi oleh CV. X adalah terdapatnya selisih saldo persediaan antara pencatatan dan fisik sebesar 25%. Selain itu, masalah-masalah lain yang ada dalam perusahaan adalah hilangnya bahan baku, penyusutan bahan baku segar, rusaknya adonan, sistem handling, dan keterlambatan pengiriman produk jadi ke outlet. Sistem pengendalian aktifitas dengan menggunakan pendekatan rantai nilai produksi merupakan sebuah metode yang dapat diaplikasikan untuk merancang sistem pengendalian pada setiap tahapan dalam proses produksi.Methods: Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif eksploratori untuk menganalisis sistem pengendalian yang telah diterapkan perusahaan.Results: Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa masalah seperti kehilangan bahan baku dan penyusutan bahan baku segar dapat dikendalikan dengan menggunakan sistem pengendalian aktifitas yang menerapkan 3 bentuk dari pengendalian atas tindakan (Behavioral constraints, Preaction reviews, dan Action accountability) dan 3 metode dalam pengendalian personalia ( Selection and placement, Training, dan Job Design and provision of necessary resources). Kedua, adonan yang rusak dalam proses pengolahan dapat diatasi dengan mengubah sistem produksi yang manual menjadi komputerisasi. Ketiga, permasalahan dalam proses distribusi yatu sistem handling dan keterlambatan pengiriman produk jadi ke outlet dapat dikurangi dengan menciptakan sebuah proses produksi yang terintegrasi yang dapat tercermin dari Laporan Produksi per batch. Terakhir, ketidaktersediaan bahan baku di Gudang dan keterlambatan pengiriman bahan baku impor dapat diselesaikan dengan sistem persediaan yang pembeliannya dipicu oleh Order Produksi. Conclusion and suggestion: CV. X perlu menggunakan sistem pengendalian aktifitas dalam rantai nilai produksi untuk mengendalikan biaya bahan baku dan penelitian selanjutnya mengenai sistem Point of Sales (POS) dan Production Order (PO) perlu dilakukan.

Robust Encoding of Abstract Rules by Distinct Neuronal Populations in Primate Visual Cortex

It is widely known that neural activity in sensory representations is modulated by cognitive factors such as attention, reward value and working memory. In such cases, sensory responses are found to reflect a selection of the specific sensory information needed to achieve behavioral goals. In contrast, more abstract behavioral constraints that do not involve stimulus selection, such as task rules, are thought to be encoded by neurons at later stages. We show that information about abstract rules is encoded by neurons in primate visual cortex in the absence of sensory stimulation. Furthermore, we show that rule information is greatest among neurons with the least visual activity and the weakest coupling to local neuronal networks. Our results identify rule-specific signals within a sensory representation and suggest that distinct mechanisms exist there for mapping rule information onto sensory guided decisions.

Is Savings Automation Helpful to Liquid Savings? It Depends on Whether You Have a Savings Habit

In general, Americans are not savers, which contributes to their inability to absorb even small financial shocks and increases their potential for financial hardship. Savings automation has been promoted as a solution to overcome the behavioral constraints (or limitations) that hinder individual savings behavior. The result has been a proliferation of automated savings programs with the goal of helping people save money without their notice as a way to overcome their tendency to consume. However, scant research has examined the efficacy of this “save people from themselves” approach. This article explores the importance of having a saver mindset, regardless of income, in the success of savings automation. Results from two studies demonstrate that the benefits of automation for liquid savings accrue at a higher rate for individuals with lower incomes and that this benefit depends on the presence of a personal savings orientation. The findings suggest that savings programs should try to build a savings habit and mindset among consumers, especially for those with lower incomes.

Networks, Power, and the Effects of Legitimacy in Contentious Politics

Legitimacy is widely theorized as shaping the dynamics of contentious politics, fostering support and stability for those involved while imposing behavioral constraints. Yet, empirical research reveals wide variation in how these effects are realized in practice. We contend that divergences in legitimacy’s effects are tied in fundamental ways to the relationship between actors engaged in contentious politics and their audience(s). We develop a framework that highlights three conditions shaping the effects of legitimacy—legitimacy type, network balance, and structural dependence—and use a comparative analysis of dyadic relationships of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and Jemaah Islamiyah to illustrate how convergence and divergence in legitimacy’s effects are systematically structured by these conditions. Doing so advances scholarship on legitimacy in contentious politics by providing a basis for systematically comparing the effects of legitimacy across cases, situations, and historical contexts.