How incidental values from the environment affect decisions about money, risk, and delay

How different are £0.50 and £1.50, or "a small chance" and "a good chance", or "three months" and "nine months"? Our experiments show that people behave as if these differences alter after incidental everyday experiences. Preference for a £1.50 lottery rather than a £0.50 lottery was stronger after exposure to intermediate supermarket prices. Preference for "a good chance" of winning rather than "a small chance" was stronger after predicting intermediate probabilities of rain. Preference for consumption in "three month" rather than "nine months" was stronger after planning for an intermediate birthday. These fluctuations offer a direct challenge to economic accounts which translate monies, risks, and delays into subjective equivalents by stable functions. The decision by sampling model, in which subjective values are rank positions constructed from comparisons with samples of monies, probabilities, or delays, predicts these effects and indicates a primary role for sampling in decision making

Fra Curia Avignonese e arcivescovado di Pisa : per una biografia di Giovanni Scarlatti (ca. *1300 – †1362)

La figura di Giovanni Scarlatti, figlio cioè di Scarlatto, è una delle meno indagate nella serie degli arcivescovi pisani del Trecento e tale lacuna non può che risultare singolare. Si consideri, infatti, benché a titolo meramente introduttivo e per sommi capi, che egli si forma presso la Curia Romana, ove a cavallo tra gli anni Trenta e Quaranta è avvocato, uditore giudiziario e lettore nello studio generale; è successivamente nunzio apostolico in Corsica, istruttore del processo che al riconoscimento dell’ordine monastico di San Basilio – i cosiddetti Bartolomiti armeni – e promotore della congregazione benedettina di Santa Maria di Monte Oliveto nel territorio pisano, occasione in cui si dimostra anche committente artisticamente sensibile. A dispetto di questa carriera, però, Giovanni è un personaggio alquanto “schivo” dal punto di vista documentario: fatto questo, che deve aver contribuito non poco al formarsi di un’aura di storiografica disattenzione attorno alla sua persona. La ricerca consiste principalmente in un sistematico spoglio della documentazione pisana disponibile per gli anni del suo mandato d’arcivescovo (1348-†1362). Il profilo biografico che ne deriva è quello di un oculato amministratore e di un accorto monitore della politica e della spiritualità cittadina e non solo, nonché di un presule sensibile alle avanguardie della spiritualità monastica ed uomo di fiducia dei pontefici avignonesi

La semplificazione amministrativa strumento necessario per la riforma e l'innovazione della pubblica amministrazione

Negli ultimi venti anni del secolo appena trascorso il rapporto complessivo tra l’amministrazione ed il cittadino è entrato in una crisi profonda: tanto da creare nella collettività la visione di uno Stato distante e lontano dai suoi membri. L’opinione pubblica, negli ultimi decenni, sempre più percepiva la pubblica amministrazione come un apparato parassitario, ostile, autoritario, insensibile ai problemi dei cittadini e delle imprese. La riforma della Pubblica Amministrazione italiana, avviata a metà degli anni novanta, sta raggiungendo importanti obiettivi per ottenere lo snellimento, la modernizzazione, il recupero di efficienza della macchina burocratica statale. Nella società italiana ogni attore sociale è consapevole che l’inefficienza della pubblica amministrazione si riflette direttamente, con effetti negativi, sulla competitività delle imprese. L’introduzione delle normative sulla semplificazione amministrativa costituisce uno degli aspetti fondamentali del cambiamento possibile. Gli strumenti della semplificazione amministrativa debbono permettere l’affermazione della “cultura del servizio” che deve sostituire quella “cultura del sospetto” che per molti anni ha governato tanta parte della Pubblica Amministrazione italiana. Questo studio vuole illustrare le tappe fondamentali del cambiamento della pubblica amministrazione che si è avviato a partire dalla fine degli anni settanta ponendo una particolare attenzione alle norme relative alla semplificazione amministrativa e agli sviluppi che essa ha avuto anche in rapporto all’introduzione delle nuove tecnologie informatiche. Il primo capitolo illustra la storia del processo di riforma, le sue condizioni ambientali e istituzionali: in breve si evidenzia la lenta maturazione dell’avvenimento, l’età della sua incubazione. Il secondo capitolo è dedicato al momento in cui, agli inizi degli anni ’90, sono state emanate alcune leggi quadro che diventeranno il punto di riferimento di tutta la riforma della pubblica amministrazione. Il terzo capitolo è dedicato all’analisi dello stato di attuazione della legge 7 agosto 1990 n. 241 di riforma del procedimento amministrativo. Tale analisi è basata su una ricerca effettuata dall’ISTAT per conto del Dipartimento della Funzione Pubblica. Il quarto capitolo si propone di analizzare le recenti riforme e i progetti di innovazione determinati dalle nuove tecnologie con particolare riferimento alla trasformazione del procedimento “cartaceo” in procedimento “informatico”. Nel quinto capitolo si affronta il tema del passaggio dalla semplificazione dei procedimenti alla democrazia elettronica favorita dai nuovi mezzi di comunicazione. A tale scopo vengono analizzati e commentati i dati del rapporto Censis 2004 sulle città digitali

Relativity, rank and the utility of income

This is the accepted version of the following article: Rablen, M. D. (2008), Relativity, Rank and the Utility of Income. The Economic Journal, 118: 801–821, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2008.02143.x/abstract.Relative utility has become an important concept in several disjoint areas of economics. I present a cardinal model of income utility based on the supposition that agents care about their rank in the income distribution and that utility is subject to adaptation over time. Utility levels correspond to the Leyden Individual Welfare Function while utility differences yield a version of the prospect theory value function, thereby providing a new and shared derivation of each. I offer an explanation of some long-standing paradoxes in the wellbeing literature and an insight into the links between relative comparisons and loss aversion.ESR

Parental decisions about children's oral health behaviour - relative or absolute?

Objectives To test the extent to which parents' judgements about their children's oral health behaviour conform to the principles of a specific theory of cognitive decision making – Range-frequency Theory. Methods Experimental study with an opportunity sample of 121 parents of young children (3–6 years old) living in areas of relative deprivation in South Wales. Parents were allocated to four different experimental groups, and each completed a pen-and-paper exercise, which involved being presented with (and rating) how often other parents brushed their children's teeth. The brushing frequencies presented varied between the groups, directly test the rank and range principle of Range-frequency Theory. Results Parents' ratings of other toothbrushing frequencies were predicted by the range and rank principle of Range-frequency Theory. A comparison between Group 1 and Group 2 showed that parents' ratings of similar brushing frequencies were affected by their relative rank among other brushing frequencies presented. A comparison between Group 3 and Group 4 showed that parents in a group who were presented with a very high brushing frequency (21 times a week) rated all other brushing frequencies as relatively less healthy than the comparison group. Conclusions The principles of Range-frequency Theory predicted parents' judgement about children's oral health behaviour – specifically toothbrushing frequency. These findings provide a theoretical framework on which to develop future oral health education and interventions aimed at promoting twice-daily toothbrushing to parents of young children

Genetic diversity and divergence at the Arbutus unedo L. (Ericaceae) westernmost distribution limit

Mediterranean forests are fragile ecosystems vulnerable to recent global warming and reduction of precipitation, and a long-term negative effect is expected on vegetation with increasing drought and in areas burnt by fires. We investigated the spatial distribution of genetic variation of Arbutus unedo in the western Iberia Peninsula, using plastid markers with conservation and provenance regions design purposes. This species is currently undergoing an intense domestication process in the region, and, like other species, is increasingly under the threat from climate change, habitat fragmentation and wildfires. We sampled 451 trees from 15 natural populations from different ecological conditions spanning the whole species' distribution range in the region. We applied Bayesian analysis and identified four clusters (north, centre, south, and a single-population cluster). Hierarchical AMOVA showed higher differentiation among clusters than among populations within clusters. The relatively low within-clusters differentiation can be explained by a common postglacial history of nearby populations. The genetic structure found, supported by the few available palaeobotanical records, cannot exclude the hypothesis of two independent A. unedo refugia in western Iberia Peninsula during the Last Glacial Maximum. Based on the results we recommend a conservation strategy by selecting populations for conservation based on their allelic richness and diversity and careful seed transfer consistent with current species' genetic structure.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Population dynamics and genetic changes of Picea abies in the South Carpathians revealed by pollen and ancient DNA analyses

Background: Studies on allele length polymorphism designate several glacial refugia for Norway spruce (Picea abies) in the South Carpathian Mountains, but infer only limited expansion from these refugia after the last glaciation. To better understand the genetic dynamics of a South Carpathian spruce lineage, we compared ancient DNA from 10,700 and 11,000-year-old spruce pollen and macrofossils retrieved from Holocene lake sediment in the Retezat Mountains with DNA extracted from extant material from the same site. We used eight primer pairs that amplified short and variable regions of the spruce cpDNA. In addition, from the same lake sediment we obtained a 15,000-years-long pollen accumulation rate (PAR) record for spruce that helped us to infer changes in population size at this site. Results: We obtained successful amplifications for Norway spruce from 17 out of 462 pollen grains tested, while the macrofossil material provided 22 DNA sequences. Two fossil sequences were found to be unique to the ancient material. Population genetic statistics showed higher genetic diversity in the ancient individuals compared to the extant ones. Similarly, statistically significant Ks and Kst values showed a considerable level of differentiation between extant and ancient populations at the same loci. Lateglacial and Holocene PAR values suggested that population size of the ancient population was small, in the range of 1/10 or 1/5 of the extant population. PAR analysis also detected two periods of rapid population growths (from ca. 11,100 and 3900 calibrated years before present (cal yr BP)) and three bottlenecks (around 9180, 7200 and 2200 cal yr BP), likely triggered by climatic change and human impact. Conclusion: Our results suggest that the paternal lineages observed today in the Retezat Mountains persisted at this site at least since the early Holocene. Combination of the results from the genetic and the PAR analyses furthermore suggests that the higher level of genetic variation found in the ancient populations and the loss of ancient allele types detected in the extant individuals were likely due to the repeated bottlenecks during the Holocene. This study demonstrates how past population size changes inferred from PAR records can be efficiently used in combination with ancient DNA studies. The joint application of palaeoecological and population genetic analyses proved to be a powerful tool to understand the influence of past population demographic changes on the haplotype diversity and genetic composition of forest tree species

Does wage rank affect employees' well-being?

How do workers make wage comparisons? Both an experimental study and an analysis of 16,000 British employees are reported. Satisfaction and well-being levels are shown to depend on more than simple relative pay. They depend upon the ordinal rank of an individual's wage within a comparison group. “Rank” itself thus seems to matter to human beings. Moreover, consistent with psychological theory, quits in a workplace are correlated with pay distribution skewness