Breakouts, Evasive Maneuvers: Managing the Proliferation Intentions of Determined States; Strategic Insights, v. 8, issue 2 (April 2009)

This article appeared in Strategic Insights, v.8, issue 2(April 2009)Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Fibers and Fabrics in Stuffed Sculpture

This thesis is a report of my experiences with fibers and fabrics in producing sculptural forms. They begin with my use of fibers in unstuffed sculpture and proceed to the use of stuffing materials in many varieties. To give an historical perspective, included are a number of related works, both primitive and recent. For the purpose of critical analysis, each sculptural form is pictorially presented and discussed

Smarter Task Assignment or Greater Effort: the impact of incentives on team performance

We use an experiment to study the impact of team-based incentives, exploiting rich data from personnel records and management information systems. Using a triple difference design, we show that the incentive scheme had an impact on team performance, even with quite large teams. We examine whether this effect was due to increased effort from workers or strategic task reallocation. We find that the provision of financial incentives did raise individual performance but that managers also disproportionately reallocated efficient workers to the incentivised tasks. We show that this reallocation was the more important contributor to the overall outcome.Incentives, Public Sector, Teams, Performance

Genetic Markers as Instrumental Variables:An Application to Child Fat Mass and Academic Achievement

The use of genetic markers as instrumental variables (IV) is receiving increasing attention from economists. This paper examines the conditions that need to be met for genetic variants to be used as instruments. We combine the IV literature with that from genetic epidemiology, with an application to child adiposity (fat mass, determined by a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan) and academic performance. OLS results indicate that leaner children perform slightly better in school tests compared to their more adipose counterparts, but the IV findings show no evidence that fat mass affects academic outcomes.Instrumental variables; Mendelian randomization; Genetic variant; Potential outcomes; Academic performance; Educational attainment; Adiposity; Fat mass; Body Mass Index; ALSPAC

Genetic Markers as Instrumental Variables

The use of genetic markers as instrumental variables (IV) is receiving increasing attention from epidemiologists, economists, statisticians and social scientists. This paper examines the conditions that need to be met for genetic variants to be used as instruments. Although these have been discussed in the epidemiological, medical and statistical literature, they have not been well-defined in the economics and social science literature. The increasing availability of biomedical data however, makes understanding of these conditions crucial to the successful use of genotypes as instruments for modifiable risk factors. We combine the econometric IV literature with that from genetic epidemiology using a potential outcomes framework and review the IV conditions in the context of a social science application, examining the effect of child fat mass on academic performance.ALSPAC; Fat mass; Genetic Variants; Instrumental Variables; Mendelian Randomization; Potential Outcomes

Child height, health and human capital: evidence using genetic markers

Height has long been recognised as associated with better outcomes: the question is whether this association is causal. We use children’s genetic variants as instrumental variables (IV) to deal with possible unobserved confounders and examine the effect of child and adolescent height on a wide range of outcomes: academic performance, IQ, self-esteem, symptoms related to depression and behavioural problems, including hyperactivity, emotional, conduct and peer problems. OLS findings show that taller children have higher IQ scores, perform better in school tests, and are less likely to have emotional or peer problems. The IV results differ. They show that taller children have better cognitive performance but, in contrast to the OLS, indicate that taller children are more likely to have behavioural problems. The magnitude of these IV estimates is large. For example, the effect of one standard deviation increase in height on IQ is comparable to the IQ difference for children born approximately 6 months apart within the same school year, while the increase in hyperactivity is comparable to the raw difference in hyperactivity between boys and girls.Child and adolescent height; human capital; mental health; behavioural outcomes; instrumental variables; Mendelian randomization; genetic variants; ALSPAC

Genetic markers as instrumental variables: an application to child fat mass and academic achievement

The use of genetic markers as instrumental variables (IV) is receiving increasing attention from economists. This paper examines the conditions that need to be met for genetic variants to be used as instruments. We combine the IV literature with that from genetic epidemiology, with an application to child adiposity (fat mass, determined by a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan) and academic performance. OLS results indicate that leaner children perform slightly better in school tests compared to their more adipose counterparts, but the IV findings show no evidence that fat mass affects academic outcomes.

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 23, No. 2

• Wills and Inventories of the First Purchasers of the Welsh Tract • Ten Tulpehocken Inventories: What Do They Reveal About a Pennsylvania German Community? • Wagon Taverns as Seen Through Local Source Material • Emigration Materials From Lambsheim in the Palatinate • Household Furnishings: Folk-Cultural Questionnaire No. 32https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/pafolklifemag/1056/thumbnail.jp

Crafting a Scholarly Persona: A Panel Discussion

This is an edited transcript of Crafting a Scholarly Persona, the Scholarship Section\u27s program from the AALS Annual Meeting in 2007. During this program, three established scholars, Ian Ayres, Paul Robinson, and Carol Sanger, discussed their individual career paths – How they chose their article topics, what the goals of their scholarship are, how they view their research agendas, etc. The discussion was intended roughly to mirror Bravo\u27s Inside the Actor\u27s Studio