Climate 2030: A National Blueprint for a Clean Energy Economy (Executive Summary)

Courage of conviction, unyielding stamina to underscore the dangerous realities of unchanging lifestyle habits and doing business as usual in today’s world, and unfettered tenacity necessary to build an ever-growing network of dedicated individuals and scientists struggling to express the need for public awareness and governmental action, describes this nationwide group. The Union of Concerned Scientists, primarily headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, presents its forecast for 2030 – complete with the recipe needed to be undertaken for individuals and businesses to both survive and thrive

A Tractable Model of Reciprocity and Fairness

We introduce a parametric model of other-regarding preferences. The income distribution and the kindness or unkindness of others' choices ('intentions') systematically affect a person's emotional state. The emotional state systematically affects the marginal rate of substitution between own and others' payoffs, and thus the person's subsequent choices. The model is applied to two sets of laboratory data: simple binary choice mini-ultimatum games, and Stackelberg duopoly games with a range of choices. The results confirm that other-regarding preferences respond to others' intentions as well as to the income distribution.

¿El inicio de la rendición de cuentas?: las cuartas elecciones generales de Sudáfrica y sus repercusiones en la gobernanza

Sudáfrica ha sido testigo este año de las elecciones más competitivas de su historia. El Congreso Nacional Africano, partido gobernante del país, se vio por primera vez forzado a competir por la obtención de votos y, en el intento, perdió algo de terreno. Este ARI analiza las repercusiones de este hecho para la rendición de cuentas por parte del gobierno, para una gobernanza eficaz y para la pluralidad política. Las cuartas elecciones de Sudáfrica han sido las más competitivas en la historia del país: han sido las primeras elecciones desde que se instauró la democracia en las que el Congreso Nacional Africano (African National Congress, ANC) ha perdido votos a favor de los partidos de la oposición. El hecho de que el alto grado de competencia electoral no estuviera acompañado de una gran violencia electoral indica que el país es más capaz de lo que se temía de hacer frente a la pluralidad política. Los resultados podrían también inyectar un nuevo incentivo para la rendición de cuentas en un sistema político caracterizado por la reducida presión competitiva, y esto, por su parte, podría garantizar la gestión de gobierno eficaz que requerirá la sociedad si lo que pretende es suavizar el impacto de la crisis económica global. Pero los resultados son ambiguos: que inciten a una mayor rendición de cuentas dependerá de la interpretación que haga de aquéllos el ANC

Impacts of the Indonesian Economic Crisis: Price Changes and the Poor

The recent financial crisis in Indonesia has resulted in dramatic price increases. Using very recent data, we investigate whether these price increases have impacted the cost-of-living of poor households in a disproportionately harsh way. We find that the poor have indeed been hit hardest. Just how hard the poor have been hit, though, depends crucially on where the household lives, whether the household is in a rural or urban area, and just how the cost-of-living index is computed. What is clear is that the notion that the very poor are so poor as to be insulated from international shocks is simply wrong. Rather, in the Indonesian case, the very poor appear the most vulnerable.

What we say and what we do: The perils of ethical consensus

Significance:A new book argues that South Africa could better fight poverty and inequality if the country recognised that caring for others is a duty. It is argued here that the problem is not that we do not all agree on the need for care – it is that we disagree on what that means. A more equal country is possible, not if we all claim to support the same principles, but if we acknowledge our differences and seek compromises between them

Democracy as an open-ended Utopia : reviving a sense of uncoerced political possibility

Utopian thought has been discredited because attempts to re-engineer society using Utopian formulae have invariably produced violence and despotism. But the apparent eclipse of Utopia has left a yawning gap, for economic and social conditions across the globe suggest a need for alternatives to the reigning social order - and thus for Utopian thinking which avoids the pitfalls of 'classical' Utopias. This needs to begin by recognising that the chief flaw in earlier Utopias is that they aspired to a world in which contention and conflict were banished. If Utopia is imagined as a state in which contest persists but in which all can contest equally without violence, it becomes a state in which democratic difference is not abolished - as in earlier Utopias - but in which it reaches its fulfillment. By conceptualising democracy as an 'openended' Utopia we can reconstruct the vision of an alternative which will legitimise neither violence nor the suppression of difference. Utopia is, in the mainstream of social and political thought, no longer seen as a subject for serious discussion. It is necessary that it become one again

How Much Can High-Quality Universal Pre-K Reduce Achievement Gaps?

Many children of color and children from low-income families enter kindergarten without the academic skills they need to succeed. Compared to their white peers, African American and Hispanic children are anywhere from 9 to 10 months behind in math and 7 to 12 months behind in reading when they enter kindergarten. These achievement gaps are concerning: Math and reading abilities at kindergarten entry are powerful predictors of later school success, and children who enter kindergarten already behind are unlikely to catch up. Moreover, in the past 50 years, minimal progress has been made toward reducing these achievement gaps. Ensuring that all children are entering kindergarten with the foundational academic skills they need to succeed is a major priority for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners alike. Early childhood education programs show promise toward this goal. Research suggests that participation in a high-quality early childhood education program can enhance children's development, reduce achievement gaps at kindergarten entry, and even have long-term benefits for children's school trajectories. However, access to high-quality pre-K in the United States remains quite low and highly unequal due to two problems. First, although pre-K attendance has increased in the past two decades, rates of access to early education vary widely as a function of children's socioeconomic backgrounds: African American, Hispanic, and low-income children are less likely to access center-based early childhood education than their white and more affluent peers. Second, the quality of most early education programs -- particularly those attended by low-income children of color -- is not high enough to substantially improve academic readiness. Recognizing the tremendous potential for high-quality preschool to improve children's outcomes, this report considers how a universal publicly funded prekindergarten program in the United States could decrease both disparities in access to early learning and achievement gaps at kindergarten entry. Data from two nationally representative datasets and prior results from evaluations of high-quality universal pre-kindergarten were analyzed to estimate the extent to which a national high-quality universal pre-K, or UPK, program would reduce achievement gaps at kindergarten entry based on children's race/ethnicity and income

A Tractable Model of Reciprocity and Fairness

We introduce a parametric model of other-regarding preferences in which my emotional state determines the marginal rate of substitution between my own and others' payoffs, and thus my subsequent choices. In turn, my emotional state responds to relative status and to the kindness or unkindness of others' choices. Structural estimations of this model with six existing data sets demonstrate that other-regarding preferences depend on status, reciprocity, and perceived property rights.

Buy it Now: A Hybrid Internet Market Institution

This paper analyzes seller choices and outcomes in approximately 700 recent Internet auctions on eBay. The ‘Buy it Now’ option that is available in these auctions allows the seller to supplement or replace the auction with a posted price offer. We use a structural model to control for the endogenous conduct of the auction (e.g., number of bids and bidders) as well as product and seller characteristics. Among other results, we find that the ‘Buy it Now’ option was used more often by sellers with higher ratings (awarded by previous buyers) and sellers offering fewer units; and that posted prices were more prevalent for used items. Sellers obtained higher prices for unused and undamaged items overall, and especially when selling at the ‘Buy it Now’ price.