Peer Group Effects, Sorting, and Fiscal Federalism

Suppose that, other things equal, an individual's utility increases with the fraction of residents in his community who are rich. Suppose further that the rich are more willing to pay for a local public than are the poor Then the rich may over-provide a local public good, with the aim of dissuading the poor from moving into a community inhabited by the rich. We describe conditions under which the equilibrium will have mixed or homogeneous communities, and conditions under which the rich or the poor benefit from central government rules which constrain local decision making.Status; Migration

Model theory of operator algebras III: Elementary equivalence and II_1 factors

We use continuous model theory to obtain several results concerning isomorphisms and embeddings between II_1 factors and their ultrapowers. Among other things, we show that for any II_1 factor M, there are continuum many nonisomorphic separable II_1 factors that have an ultrapower isomorphic to an ultrapower of M. We also give a poor man's resolution of the Connes Embedding Problem: there exists a separable II_1 factor such that all II_1 factors embed into one of its ultrapowers.Comment: 16 page

‘It's the little things that count’: healthcare professionals’ views on delivering dignified care: a qualitative study

Aims: To explore healthcare professionals’ perspectives of dignified care and experiences of providing care. Background: Although ‘care’ and dignity in care are seen as central to the delivery of good care by patients, families and professionals, we still lack a clear understanding of what these, often contested and elusive concepts, mean in the practice setting, particularly from the perspective of healthcare professionals. Design: Interview based qualitative research design. Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with healthcare professionals working in four UK NHS trusts. Data were collected between June–November 2012. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Findings: Forty-eight healthcare professionals took part in this interview based study. Two main themes that encapsulated how care and dignity in care is enacted by professionals were identified: focusing on the ‘little’ things that matter to both professionals and patients; and improving care by making poor care ‘visible’. Conclusion: Our findings show that the ‘little things’ in care allow professionals to ‘care for’ but also ‘care about’ patients, suggesting that these two aspects of caring become intrinsically interlinked. Our findings also suggest that ‘making poor care visible’ challenges engrained and task rather than human focused care in a non-threatening way, which can be the catalyst for providing care that is caring and dignified

How important to India's poor is the urban - rural composition of growth?

Views differ on how much India's poor have shared in the growth and contraction in the country's average standard of living since independence. Some have argued that the rural growth that accompanied the green revolution in the 1970s and 1980s brought few gains to the poor in the rural sector, while others have viewed agricultural growth as the key to rural poverty reduction. Views have also differed on how much urban growth has benefited the poor. The authors used 33 household surveys spanning 1951-1991 to examine the relative importance to India's poor of both urban and rural consumption growth. Among other things, they tested for spillover effects between sectors: does urban growth have the same effects on the rural distribution of consumption as rural growth has on urban distribution? Urban growth reduced poverty, but adverse distribution effects within the urban sector reduced the gains to the urban poor, and urban growth had no significant effect on rural distribution. Rural growth was distribution-neutral within the rural sector and so brought sizable absolute gains to the rural poor. Rural growth also had pro-poor distributional effects on urban poverty. Identifying the nature of these intra- and inter-sectoral effects reinforces the importance of rural growth to national poverty reduction. Future progress in fighting poverty in India will depend on both the rate of rural economic growth and the country's success in switching to a more pro-poor process of growth.Achieving Shared Growth,Poverty Assessment,Rural Poverty Reduction,Services&Transfers to Poor,Safety Nets and Transfers

Role Conflict: Society’s Dilemma with Excellence in Marketing

In recent years, the American market system has come under increasing criticism from those it serves. Many young people, radicals, members of minority groups and even middle-of-the-roaders are concerned about such things as poor product quality, poor variety, unsafe products. and misleading advertising. From almost any vantage point, flaws in the American economic system are visible.role conflict, marketing, society, dilemma

True Nations and Half People: Rewriting Nationalism in Alasdair Gray�s Poor Things

This article seeks to explore the apparent contradictions between postmodernism and political nationalism in Alasdair Gray's novel Poor Things. While Gray himself has spoken out in favour of an independent Scottish republic, his ironic, self-referential fiction has often been characterised as a mode of writing whose irreconcilable paradoxes work against political engagement. This issue is studied as regards nationalism, particularly as Poor Things raises the question of how nations are constructed through their literature. Since Poor Things abounds in imagery of hybridity and duality, it is argued that any presumption of wholeness and unicity in the nation is necessarily to be treated with caution. However, through a study of the rival political discourses that permeate Poor Things, it appears that Scottish nationalism is not necessarily incompatible with a politicised form of postmodernist writing. Indeed, Poor Things' key themes of authorial power, contradictory discourses and rewriting are particularly pertinent to the question of nationalism

Are the poor protected from budget cuts? theory and evidence for Argentina

Adjustment programs often emphasize protecting social spending - especially pro-poor spending - from cuts. Yet the incidence of fiscal contraction - and hence the case for action to protect public spending on the poor at a time of overall fiscal austerity - is an empirical question, which the author addresses using data from Argentina. Aggregate budget cuts in Argentina in the 1980s and1990s, typically brought proportionately greater cuts in social spending."Non-social"spending was protected. But proportionate cuts for types of social spending that matter more to the poor, were about the same as the cuts for those that tend to favor the non-poor. Absolute cuts were in fact greater for"social insurance"that matters more to the non-poor. But spending on targeted social assistance, and employment programs, was more vulnerable to aggregate spending cuts, than were more universal social services. Social spending was clearly exposed to fiscal contraction, but this was somewhat less true of pro-poor spending on things that also benefited the non-poor. So fine targeting may be a mixed blessing for the poor, bringing greater vulnerability to cuts, possibly when help is most needed. There is a strong case for action to protect pro-poor social spending at such times. An externally financed work-fare scheme in Argentina was far better targeted than other social spending, but still had to ensure that a small, but relatively well-protected share of the benefits went to the non-poor. The program was clearly subject to the same political economy constraints that influenced the incidence of past fiscal contractions in Argentina. The program expanded into poor areas when the budget increased, but retreated from poor areas when the program was cut. It was the program's disbursements to non-poor areas that were protected. Still, given the low wage rate offered, the direct benefits from the program were still likely to have favored the poor, even after the cuts.Public&Municipal Finance,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Urban Economics,Poverty Reduction Strategies,Services&Transfers to Poor,Rural Poverty Reduction,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Urban Economics,Safety Nets and Transfers,Services&Transfers to Poor

Portfolio Choice and Health Status

This paper analyzes the role that health status plays in household portfolio decisions using data from the Health and Retirement Study. The results indicate that health is a significant predictor of both the probability of owning different types of financial assets and the share of financial wealth held in each asset category. Households in poor health are less likely to hold risky financial assets, other things (including the level of total wealth) being the same. Poor health is associated with a smaller share of financial wealth held in risky assets and a larger share in safe assets. We find no evidence that the relationship between health status and portfolio allocation is driven by third variables' that simultaneously affect health and financial decisions. Further, the relationship between health status and portfolio choice does not appear to operate through the effect of poor health on individuals' attitudes toward risk, their planning horizons, or their health insurance status.

ON INTERNATIONAL EQUITY WEIGHTS AND NATIONAL DECISION MAKING ON CLIMATE CHANGE. ESRI Research Bulletin 2010/4/2

Climate change is a moral problem. The main reason to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is a concern for faraway lands (Schelling 2000), distant futures (Nordhaus 1982), and remote probabilities (Weitzman 2009). The people who emit most are least affected by climate change, and the benefits of their abatement would be diffused. Carbon dioxide dwells in the atmosphere for decades and the effects on temperature and sea level play out over even longer periods. On central projections climate change and its impacts are a nuisance for rich countries and a problem for poor countries. But there is a chance that things will go horribly wrong. If you do not care about risk, the future, or other people, then you have little reason to care about climate change

Smart Asset Management for Electric Utilities: Big Data and Future

This paper discusses about future challenges in terms of big data and new technologies. Utilities have been collecting data in large amounts but they are hardly utilized because they are huge in amount and also there is uncertainty associated with it. Condition monitoring of assets collects large amounts of data during daily operations. The question arises "How to extract information from large chunk of data?" The concept of "rich data and poor information" is being challenged by big data analytics with advent of machine learning techniques. Along with technological advancements like Internet of Things (IoT), big data analytics will play an important role for electric utilities. In this paper, challenges are answered by pathways and guidelines to make the current asset management practices smarter for the future.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of 12th World Congress on Engineering Asset Management (WCEAM) 201