Irrationality rings! - Experimental evidence on mobile tariff choices

This paper investigates why consumers choose calling plans that are not always cost-minimizing. Our approach is twofold: we account for general difficulties facing a tariff choice, as well as for biased preferences. We provide evidence from an experiment among German university students and staff, finding that participants are often not aware of their actual consumption. In line with the findings on at-rate biases, respondents systematically overestimate their consumption. On the other hand, they are generally able and willing to detect optimal tariffs. Furthermore, with increasing usage level, consumers' performance improves. However, some participants hold strong preferences for certain tariff forms, seducing them to choose cost-dominated offers. In our setup, we find that respondents prefer tariffs involving subsidies or hire-purchase options for handsets over contracts with buy now options. --Behavioral Economics,Mobile phone tariffs,Handset subsidy,Hire-purchase of device

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Social Issues [book review]

Acknowledging that current information about social issues is often ingested in sound bites and snippets, the Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Social Issues seeks to bridge the gap between newsstand, newcomer, and expert knowledge. As stated in the preface, editor Michael Shally-Jensen and entry contributors encourage readers to “appreciate current issues for the complex matters that they are” and generally succeed in that regard. Most useful are the many entries that follow the encyclopedia’s guiding principle by tying in recent examples and news stories before getting into more theoretical discussions. All entries provide historical context for the topic at hand and most are presented in clear, accessible language that strives for objectivity. Of the 200 total entries, two dozen are entirely new contributions, while the remaining 180 consist of updated and revised entries from the Greenwood Press Battleground series (print). A few entries updated from that series continue to rely on outdated examples, but the majority acknowledge key recent events: the passage of Arizona SB 1070 in the entry on “Immigration Reform,” for example, or the arrest of scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in the entry on “Racial, National Origin, and Religion Profiling.

The Greenwood Dictionary of Education (2nd edition) [Review]

With 850 new or significantly revised terms in addition to previously published content, the second edition of the Greenwood Dictionary of Education brings the 2003 version up to date. New content includes selected coverage of terminology from the fields of neuroscience, educational assessment, and technology, as well as updated entries on evolving educational practices and theories. Unfortunately it’s difficult to determine the scope of the additions: as a traditionally-organized alphabetical work without an index, this work—as with most dictionaries—is most useful for known- item searches. The keyword search in the ebook version does search word definitions in addition to head words, which is enormously helpful and could help a novice or general user to find related terms. In fact, this reviewer wished that a strict adherence to a dictionary format had been set aside in favor of options to optimize flexibility in searching. For a variety of users, a topical index would be quite helpful, especially given the fact that “contributing editors were also responsible for defining the boundaries of their topical areas” (x) while compiling and writing entries

Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning [book review]

The Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning is the first major reference work in the growing and highly visible field of learning sciences. It brings together definitional entries from scholars who represent the breath of this interdisciplinary area of study, teaching, and practice: biology, neuroscience, psychology, computer and information science, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, education, and a range of narrower technical and applied fields. Given the increasing amount of scholarly and popular attention to the dimensions and questions of human learning, it’s important to note that this encyclopedia devotes equal time to animal and machine learning as well; this is a significant difference that sets it apart from previously-published reference works on educational psychology. It also maintains an international sensibility in terms of contributors and topics and aims for an objective tone overall. Where it addresses specific institutions, politics and cultures of learning, it does so primarily to contextualize a specific learning behavior, process, method, theory, or concept

The Humanities in Process, Not Crisis: Information Literacy as a Means of Low-Stakes Course Innovation

Librarians and humanists these days share several concerns: the nature and value of expertise, our relationship to texts/textual production, and traditional and emerging approaches to the study, collection, and preservation of canonical and alternative cultural content. At the moment, debates about these matters are often construed as a crisis of relevance and cause for much hand-wringing. While digital humanities projects offer creative approaches to these issues on a large scale, they have not always articulated pedagogical approaches relevant to undergraduate learners, especially at smaller institutions

Anti-Immigration in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia [book review]

Consider Anti-Immigration in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia a newer, narrower, more explicitly academic take on a well-covered topic among reference resources. Since James Ciment’s seminal, four-volume Encyclopedia of American Immigration published in 2001, there has been a variety of encyclopedias published focusing on the United States and immigration. Most recently, 2010 brought another Encyclopedia of American Immigration (unrelated to the previously mentioned work of the same name) edited by Carl L. Bankston and intended for use by the general public and high school/college undergraduates

First-Generation Students and Libraries: Beyond the Deficit Narrative

Much has been made of the challenges first-generation (FG) students face as they begin their college experience; graduation and retention rates are lower than for other students,1 anxiety about the adjustment to college life is higher,2 and studies of their experiences and performance in the first year reinforce a narrative of struggle, obstacles, and barriers.3,4 Colleges and universities have responded to these findings by offering additional support and programming specifically for FG students. These efforts can be read in two ways. On one hand, they suggest that institutions of higher education are increasingly aware of the diverse needs of their students; on the other hand, institutional anxiety about retention and reputation summers under the surface, suggesting that the attention and resources devoted to FG students are also shaped by institutional needs. What are the implications of this tension for libraries? As professionals eager to meet user needs, how can librarians support FG students\u27 success and see them for more than their perceived disadvantages? This chapter begins with an overview of the literature on FG students\u27 experiences, challenges, and outcomes. It then contrasts these approaches with critiques of the first generation category itself. Next existing literature on FG students\u27 library use and information-seeking habits are examined in relation to both approaches. Finally, the author suggests ways in which libraries can recognize and respond to FG students more holistically than a deficit-focused approach generally permits