Reading in the mobile era

Mobile technology can advance literacy and learning in underserved communities around the world. Summary Millions of people do not read for one reason: they do not have access to text. But today mobile phones and cellular networks are transforming a scarce resource into an abundant one. Drawing on the analysis of over 4,000 surveys collected in seven developing countries and corresponding qualitative interviews, this report paints the most detailed picture to date of who reads books and stories on mobile devices and why. The findings illuminate, for the first time, the habits, beliefs and profiles of mobile readers. This information points to strategies to expand mobile reading and, by extension, the educational, social and economic benefits associated with increased reading. Mobile technology can advance literacy and learning in underserved communities around the world. This report shows how

The Ranges of K-theoretic Invariants for Nonsimple Graph Algebras

There are many classes of nonsimple graph C*-algebras that are classified by the six-term exact sequence in K-theory. In this paper we consider the range of this invariant and determine which cyclic six-term exact sequences can be obtained by various classes of graph C*-algebras. To accomplish this, we establish a general method that allows us to form a graph with a given six-term exact sequence of K-groups by splicing together smaller graphs whose C*-algebras realize portions of the six-term exact sequence. As rather immediate consequences, we obtain the first permanence results for extensions of graph C*-algebras. We are hopeful that the results and methods presented here will also prove useful in more general cases, such as situations where the C*-algebras under investigations have more than one ideal and where there are currently no relevant classification theories available.Comment: 40 page

Assessing Bias in Regression Estimates Using Monte Carlo Simulations: Examples in Criminal Justice Research

Can we trust published results? Problems with bias in reported results: “Do social scientists even know anything?” Failed replications (“repligate”). Inaccurate inferences about important relationships (Type I and Type II errors). Inaccurate power analyses for future studies. To avoid these problems, researchers need tools to rigorously evaluate statistical models. The Monte Carlo method is one tool that can be used to evaluate bias in model estimateshttps://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/gcua_symposium/1008/thumbnail.jp

Dying to Get out of Debt: Consumer Insolvency Law and Suicide in Japan

This Article explores the complex relation between consumer insolvency law and suicide in Japan, where bankruptcies and suicides have increased dramatically in recent years. The statistical and interview evidence, some of which relates to the creation of a relatively efficient and socially acceptable insolvency mechanism in 2001, suggests that law is at least indirectly relevant to decisions to take one’s own life. Law can bring about debt control and stigma mitigation, each of which can lead to lower levels of stress and depression, each of which can lead to lower suicide rates. Still, responses to the law, even in relatively homogeneous Japan, are varied and ambiguous, and seldom if ever is insolvency law the sole cause of suicide. The causal mechanism behind the law’s apparent force appears to be a complex calculus of economic and social factors

Dying to Get out of Debt: Consumer Insolvency Law and Suicide in Japan

This Article explores the complex relation between consumer insolvency law and suicide in Japan, where bankruptcies and suicides have increased dramatically in recent years. The statistical and interview evidence, some of which relates to the creation of a relatively efficient and socially acceptable insolvency mechanism in 2001, suggests that law is at least indirectly relevant to decisions to take one’s own life. Law can bring about debt control and stigma mitigation, each of which can lead to lower levels of stress and depression, each of which can lead to lower suicide rates. Still, responses to the law, even in relatively homogeneous Japan, are varied and ambiguous, and seldom if ever is insolvency law the sole cause of suicide. The causal mechanism behind the law’s apparent force appears to be a complex calculus of economic and social factors

Employment Market Institutions and Japanese Working Hours

Why do Japanese workers work such long hours? Beginning with a series of cases in the 1950s, Japanese courts drastically curtailed firms’ abilities to dismiss workers. As a consequence of the inability to dismiss workers legally, large Japanese firms hired a smaller number of workers than were necessary to fulfill capacity without overtime. Employers rely on the working hours of this undersized cadre of workers, carefully screened to rule out the slothful, as a buffer. In bad times, the size of the work force makes dismissal unnecessary. In good times, workers are forced to work long hours. While these court decisions led to an increase in working hours in the 1950s, recent laws have led to a decrease. In response to interest group demands of the late 1980s and 1990s, Japan passed legislation that directly limits working hours. At the same time, it liberalized rules regarding temporary employees, allowing those persons to serve as the buffer instead of regular employees. As the statutory working-hour limits and market liberalization have taken effect, working hours have decreased

Exchange Rate Models Are Not as Bad as You Think

Standard models of exchange rates, based on macroeconomic variables such as prices, interest rates, output, etc., are thought by many researchers to have failed empirically. We present evidence to the contrary. First, we emphasize the point that "beating a random walk" in forecasting is too strong a criterion for accepting an exchange rate model. Typically models should have low forecasting power of this type. We then propose a number of alternative ways to evaluate models. We examine in-sample fit, but emphasize the importance of the monetary policy rule, and its effects on expectations, in determining exchange rates. Next we present evidence that exchange rates incorporate news about future macroeconomic fundamentals, as the models imply. We demonstrate that the models might well be able to account for observed exchange-rate volatility. We discuss studies that examine the response of exchange rates to announcements of economic data. Then we present estimates of exchange-rate models in which expected present values of fundamentals are calculated from survey forecasts. Finally, we show that out-of-sample forecasting power of models can be increased by focusing on panel estimation and long-horizon forecasts.