A Processive View of Perceptual Experience

The goal of this piece is to put some pressure on Brian O’Shaughnessy’s claim that perceptual experiences are necessarily mental processes. The author targets two motivations behind the development of that view. First, O’Shaughnessy resorts to pure conceptual analysis to argue that perceptual experiences are processes. The author argues that this line of reasoning is inconclusive. Secondly, he repeatedly invokes a thought experiment concerning the total freeze of a subject’s experiential life. Even if this case is coherent, however, it does not show that perceptual experiences are processes

An asymptotic bound for the strong chromatic number

The strong chromatic number $\chi_{\text{s}}(G)$ of a graph $G$ on $n$ vertices is the least number $r$ with the following property: after adding $r \lceil n/r \rceil - n$ isolated vertices to $G$ and taking the union with any collection of spanning disjoint copies of $K_r$ in the same vertex set, the resulting graph has a proper vertex-colouring with $r$ colours. We show that for every $c > 0$ and every graph $G$ on $n$ vertices with $\Delta(G) \ge cn$, $\chi_{\text{s}}(G) \leq (2 + o(1)) \Delta(G)$, which is asymptotically best possible.Comment: Minor correction, accepted for publication in Combin. Probab. Compu

Top Incomes in Chile 1957-2007: Evolution and Mobility

Using household surveys that cover more than 50 years of the political and economic history of Chile, we investigate changes in the shape and in the composition of the distribution of income in Chile, in particular of top 10 % and top 1% incomes. In line with international evidence top income concentration appears to be countercyclical in the short run. For the entire length of this survey, this concentration shows roughly an inverted U-shape, peaking at the end of the 80s. These changes correspond approximately with different economic models prevailing in Chile. We observe important changes in the composition of top income groups related to greater relative importance of women, employees and college schooling levels. These changes are stronger for the top 10% than the top 1% of incomes. Additionally, using a national level panel of households for the period 1996-2006 we explore correlations between probabilities of permanence and arrival to the top decile with variables such as composition of the household, ownership of physical and human assets, job quality and active persons in the labor market.

Top Incomes in Chile using 50 years of household surveys : 1957-2007

Using household surveys that cover more than 50 years of the political and economic history of Chile, we investigate changes in the shape of the distribution of income in Chile, and in the composition of top 10% and top 1% incomes. In line with international evidence, top incomes concentration appears to be countercyclical in the short run. For the entire length of this survey, this concentration shows roughly an inverted U-shape, peaking at the end of the 80s. These changes correspond approximately with different economic policy regimes prevailing in Chile. We observe important changes in the composition of top income groups related to greater relative importance of women, employees and college schooling levels. These changes are stronger for the top 10% than the top 1% of incomes. Additionally, using a national level panel of households for the period 1996-2006 we explore correlations between probabilities of permanence and arrival to the top decile with variables such as composition of the house old, ownership of physical and human assets, job quality and changes in the numbers of household members working in the labor market.Income distribution, Income mobility

Parametric and Semi-parametric Estimations of the Return to Schooling in South Africa

This paper estimates return to schooling for african and coloured women in South Africa. It compares parametric and semiparametric estimates of the sample selection model for the case of return to schooling. The parametric estimator is the one proposed by Heckman (1979) and the semiparametric estimator proposed by Newey (1991) and Klein and Spady (1993). It also attempts to correct endogeneity and mesurement error by using instruments of schooling. Following recent literature, the paper uses community variables primary and secondary school proximity and availability as instruments. Using instrumental variables increases the return to schooling substantially. Parametric corrections does not change the results but semiparametric corrections increases the return even morereturn to schooling, sample selection bias, semiparametric regression, instrumental variables, south africa

Seguro de Desempleo y Riesgo individual del desempleo: Caso Chileno

Chile posee un sistema de seguro de desempleo con un diseño y forma de financiamiento única en el mundo.Esta combina cuentas de ahorro individuales, financiadas por trabajadores y empresas con un fondoredistributivo financiado por empresas y el Estado. Este paper intenta determinar los factores de riesgoasociados al desempleo y el posible impacto del seguro de desempleo en Chile. Se usan tres medidas deriesgo: la pérdida involuntaria del empleo, la duración del desempleo y la reinserción en el empleo. Pararealizar esta investigación se utiliza un panel de individuos quienes se observan mensualmente desde enero de2002 hasta diciembre de 2004 su condición laboral y las características de las empresas donde estuvotrabajando, su condición de afiliación al seguro y se agregaron a estos datos medidas de ciclo económico(EPS 2004). Aprovechando la forma de panel de los datos de historia laboral se estima el posible impacto deestar afiliado o ser beneficiario del seguro en la probabilidad de estar desempleado y en la duración deldesempleo, controlando por factores correlacionados con la condición de afiliación. Se utilizarán modelosmultinomial logit, modelos de duración y un modelo de máximo verosimilitud condicional con efectos fijos ypanel de efectos fijos. A diferencia de lo reportado en la literatura internacional con respecto a los efectos delos sistemas de seguro desempleo tradicionales, los individuos que logran acceder a los beneficios del segurode desempleo o aquellos que están afiliados tienen una menor probabilidad de estar desempleados relativos aestar empleados y tienen períodos de desempleo más cortos que sus pares.seguro de desempleo, riesgo de desempleo, modelos de duracion, modelo logistico condicional

Choosing Health Insurance in a Dual Health Care System: The Chilean Case

In Chile there is a public insurance system where people contribute a fixed percentage of their income, and also a private system where people pay a premium based on their personal characteristics. Using a large survey for 1996, we study the determinants of the decision to buy a private health plan. We find that the probability of buying a private health plan is positively correlated with income and living in areas with private health services providers. This probability decreases as families become older, and with a larger proportion of fertile age females. We also find that people who are more likely to demand health services prefer to buy a private health plan, and that people enrolled in a private health plan increase their use of health services. The segmentation observed in the health sector relates with the way private insurers and the public insurance system set their premiums.health insurance; health services; income segmentation

An R Package for a General Class of Inverse Gaussian Distributions

The inverse Gaussian distribution is a positively skewed probability model that has received great attention in the last 20 years. Recently, a family that generalizes this model called inverse Gaussian type distributions has been developed. The new R package named ig has been designed to analyze data from inverse Gaussian type distributions. This package contains basic probabilistic functions, lifetime indicators and a random number generator from this model. Also, parameter estimates and diagnostics analysis can be obtained using likelihood methods by means of this package. In addition, goodness-of-fit methods are implemented in order to detect the suitability of the model to the data. The capabilities and features of the ig package are illustrated using simulated and real data sets. Furthermore, some new results related to the inverse Gaussian type distribution are also obtained. Moreover, a simulation study is conducted for evaluating the estimation method implemented in the ig package.

Discriminación en el mercado laboral por habilidades, educación escolar y género en Chile

En este trabajo se analiza el efecto de los niveles de escolaridad sobre las brechas de sexo en el mercado laboral chileno. Se emplea un nutrido conjunto de datos sobre los resultados del mercado laboral, el logro académico y el rendimiento académico, así como las variables que caracterizan los antecedentes familiares. Aunque los resultados muestran diferencias de sexo estadísticamente significativas en varias dimensiones del mercado laboral chileno, esas brechas dependen mayormente del nivel de escolaridad de los individuos. Esos hallazgos no se deben tomar como una prueba decisiva de discriminación en el mercado laboral chileno.

Is There Labor Market Discrimination among Professionals in Chile? Lawyers, Doctors and Businesspeople

This paper analyzes gender differences in three Chilean professional labor markets, Business, Law and Medicine, utilizing a new and rich data set collected for this purpose. The results show that differences in wages attributed to gender are only present in the legal profession. In Business/Economics, a vector of current family condition eliminates the gender effect and in Medicine, taking into account hours worked, size of firm and region also eliminates gender differences. The paper further shows that individuals’ perceived locus of control (internal or external) is relevant in explaining the distribution of earnings.