An experimental inquiry into the effect of yardstick competition on corruption

This study reports theory-testing laboratory experiments on the effect of yardstick competition on corruption. On the incumbent side, yardstick competition acts as a corruption-taming mechanism if the incumbent politician is female. On the voter side, voters focus on the difference between the tax rate in their own jurisdiction and that in another. If the tax rate is deemed unfair compared to the one in another jurisdiction, voters re-elect less. The findings support the claim by Besley and Case (1995) that incumbent behavior and tax setting are tied together through the nexus of yardstick competition. This renders generalizability to these laboratory experiments and addresses some concerns raised by Levitt and List (2007).Corruption, Yardstick Competition, Political Agency, Asymmetric

Numerical Investigation of Installed Jet Noise Sensitivity to Lift and Wing/Engine Positioning

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.As the turbofan engines of modern transport aircraft have increasingly larger bypass ratios, by necessity to avoid longer undercarriage, the engine must be installed closer to the wing. This then has the potential of interaction between the jet flow and a deployed flap. This interaction can be an important noise source when the high-lift systems are deployed, as at approach and take-off. Investigating the parameters that have a strong influence on the installation noise penalty can help in identifying noise reduction measures. In this paper Wall-Modelled Large Eddy Simulations (WMLES), combined with the FfowcsWilliams and Hawkings (FW-H) sound extrapolation method, are performed to reproduce three experimental cases, with the aim of isolating the different contributions of flap angle and trailing-edge/jet-axis distance h. The first case (DOAK), consisting of a single jet installed near a horizontal flat plate, confirms the fundamental mechanisms of jet-surface interaction and jet-surface reflection in the absence of lift. The second case (DLR-F16), with a coaxial jet installed under a high-lift wing, reveals the trailing-edge/jet-axis distance h as the dominant parameter, with a possible influence of the flap angle at low frequencies. The third case (SYMPHONY) is used to study the interaction of a coaxial jet with a full aircraft geometry using Fourier decomposition of the pressure near-field to analyse the effects on sound sources and radiation

Comprehension and risk elicitation in the field: Evidence from rural Senegal

In the past decade, it has become increasingly common to use simple laboratory games and decision tasks as a device for measuring both the preferences and understanding of rural populations in the developing world. This is vitally important for policy implementation in a variety of areas. In this paper, we report the results observed using three distinct risk elicitation mechanisms, using samples drawn from the rural population in Senegal, West Africa. Whatever the intellectual merits of a particular elicitation strategy, there is little value in performing such tests if the respondents do not understand the questions involved. We test the understanding of and the level of meaningful responses to the typical Holt-Laury task, to a simple binary mechanism pioneered by Gneezy and Potters in 1997 and adapted by Charness and Gneezy in 2010, and to a nonincentivized willingness-to-risk scale à la Dohmen et al. We find a disturbingly low level of understanding with the Holt-Laury task and an unlikely-to-be-accurate pattern with the willingness-to-risk question. On the other hand, the simple binary mechanism produces results that closely match the patterns found in previous work, although the levels of risk-taking are lower than in previous studies. Our study is a cautionary note against utilizing either sophisticated risk-elicitation mechanisms at the possible cost of seriously diminished levels of comprehension or nonincentivized questions in the rural developing world.comprehension, risk elicitation, laboratory experiments in the field, rural,

Potential collusion and trust: Evidence from a field experiment in Vietnam

We conduct framed trust games using contract dairy farmers in Vietnam as first movers to assess the impact of potential collusion on trust. Disaggregated analysis suggests that female farmers are more likely to trust overall, but are also more responsive to the addition of a third party and potential collusion. A third party induces them to trust at higher levels, but potential collusion between the trustee and the third party also induces them to trust at lower levels. Our findings corroborate well with existing studies on gender differences in decision making, which suggest that women's social preferences are more context-specific than men's.collusion, field experiment, Gender, trust game,

An experiment on the impact of weather shocks and insurance on risky investment

We conduct a framed field experiment in rural Ethiopia to test the seminal hypothesis that insurance provision induces farmers to take greater, yet profitable, risks. Farmers participated in a game protocol in which they were asked to make a simple decision: whether to purchase fertilizer, and if so, how many bags. The return to fertilizer was dependent on a stochastic weather draw made in each round of the game protocol. In later rounds of the game protocol, a random selection of farmers made this decision in the presence of a stylized weather-index insurance contract. Insurance was found to have some positive effect on fertilizer purchases. Purchases were also found to depend on the realization of the weather in the previous round. We explore the mechanisms of this relationship and find that it may be the result of both changes in wealth weather brings about and changes in perceptions of the costs and benefits of fertilizer purchases.Fertilizer, field experiment, hypothesis, input response, Insurance,

Numerical solution of three-dimensional rectangular submerged jets with the evidence of the undisturbed region of flow

The evolution of turbulent rectangular submerged free jets has been investigated numerically with a two-dimensional (2D) approach by the present authors and, by using the large eddy simulations (LES) at several Reynolds numbers. The average numerical results confirmed the presence of the undisturbed region of flow (URF) located between the slot exit and the beginning of the potential core region (PCR) previously observed experimentally at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” by Gori and coworkers. The 2D study of the present authors carried out under the conditions previously investigated in the literature, showed that the URF has a self-similar behavior, and proposed a new law for the evolution of the momentum. The present paper extends the LES to three-dimensional (3D) rectangular submerged free jets, in the range from Re =5,000 to Re =40,000, showing that the self-similar behavior of URF is also present in the 3D numerical simulations, as well as in the PCR and in the fully developed region (FDR)

Patterns of Scalable Bayesian Inference

Datasets are growing not just in size but in complexity, creating a demand for rich models and quantification of uncertainty. Bayesian methods are an excellent fit for this demand, but scaling Bayesian inference is a challenge. In response to this challenge, there has been considerable recent work based on varying assumptions about model structure, underlying computational resources, and the importance of asymptotic correctness. As a result, there is a zoo of ideas with few clear overarching principles. In this paper, we seek to identify unifying principles, patterns, and intuitions for scaling Bayesian inference. We review existing work on utilizing modern computing resources with both MCMC and variational approximation techniques. From this taxonomy of ideas, we characterize the general principles that have proven successful for designing scalable inference procedures and comment on the path forward

An experimental inquiry into the effect of yardstick competition on corruption

This study reports theory-testing laboratory experiments on the effect of yardstick competition on corruption. On the incumbent side, yardstick competition acts as a corruption-taming mechanism if the incumbent politician is female. On the voter side, voters focus on the difference between the tax rate in their own jurisdiction and that in another. If the tax rate is deemed unfair compared to the one in another jurisdiction, voters re-elect less. The findings support the claim by Besley and Case (1995) that incumbent behavior and tax setting are tied together through the nexus of yardstick competition. This renders generalizability to these laboratory experiments and addresses some concerns raised by Levitt and List (2007)

Rhetoric and narratives of brazilian’ sex workers in the age of anti-trafficking

Dissertação de mestrado em Sociologia (área de especialização em Políticas Sociais)The present dissertation aims to analyze, legally and politically, the current prostitution policy in Brazil and the attempts to reform it. Assuming that prostitution is a legal occupation, it consequently differs from the analogy made by the legislator with sexual exploitation in the current Penal Code. Therefore, an analysis is made from the construction of social movements organized by sex workers about their political achievements and importance within the Brazilian scenario with the government and despite it. In the same provision, an analysis of the Penal Code chapter on prostitution and human trafficking demonstrates how the current criminal law is outdated and highly punitive and that it should be avoided. With the increasing demand from prostitution associations for decriminalization, we will analyze the four existing policies on the subject and their consequences for sex workers. And finally, an analysis of how stigma and moral panic influenced the votes and opinions of bills involving the theme of prostitution in Brazil, which occurred with a strong influence on the international trafficking scene. It is important to note immediately that this is about defending the decriminalization of the sex industry concerning the prostitution of persons of legal age, capable and consented to sexual activity, considered sex workers, and not, in any way, children and adolescents or of people who are in any type of violence or abuse, these being victims of sexual exploitation, which must be faced. Finally, I emphasize that the only path in line with human rights is decriminalization, and as an example we look to the discrimination that took place in New Zealand.A presente dissertação tem como objetivo analisar juridicamente, e politicamente a atual política de prostituição no Brasil, e as tentativas de reformá-la. Partindo do pressuposto que a prostituição é uma ocupação legal, portanto difere da analogia feita pelo legislador com exploração sexual no atual Código Criminal. Para tanto, é feito uma análise a partir da construção dos movimentos sociais organizados por trabalhadoras sexuais acerca das suas conquistas políticas e a importância dentro do cenário brasileiro com o governo e apesar dele. No mesmo diapasão, uma análise acerca do capitulo do Código Criminal acerca da prostituição e tráfico de pessoas, demonstrando como a atual lei criminal é ultrapassada, e que ela deve ser evitada. Com a crescente demanda das associações de prostituição pela descriminalização, analisaremos as quatro políticas existentes sobre o tema e suas consequências para as trabalhadoras sexuais. E por fim, uma análise sobre como o estigma e pânico moral influenciaram as votações e pareceres dos projetos de lei envolvendo a temática da prostituição no Brasil, as quais ocorreram com forte influência do cenário do tráfico internacional. Importante destacar de imediato que se trata aqui da defesa da descriminalização da indústria do sexo em relação à prostituição de pessoas maiores de idade, capazes e consentidas com a atividade sexual, consideradas trabalhadores sexuais, e não, de maneira alguma, de crianças e adolescentes ou de pessoas que estão em qualquer tipo de violência ou abuso, sendo essas vítimas de exploração sexual, a qual deve ser enfrentada. Por fim, ressalto que o único caminho em consonância com os direitos humanos é o da descriminalização, e como exemplo nos espelhamos na descriminação ocorrida na Nova Zelândia