Moving Image Preservation in Libraries

published or submitted for publicatio

The Portuguese New Testament in the light of modern research: its translation and text.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston Universit

Inference in a Synchronization Game with Social Interactions, Second Version

This paper studies inference in a continuous time game where an agent's decision to quit an activity depends on the participation of other players. In equilibrium, similar actions can be explained not only by direct influences but also by correlated factors. Our model can be seen as a simultaneous duration model with multiple decision makers and interdependent durations. We study the problem of determining the existence and uniqueness of equilibrium stopping strategies in this setting. This paper provides results and conditions for the detection of these endogenous effects. First, we show that the presence of such effects is a necessary and sufficient condition for simultaneous exits. This allows us to set up a nonparametric test for the presence of such influences which is robust to multiple equilibria. Second, we provide conditions under which parameters in the game are identified. Finally, we apply the model to data on desertion in the Union Army during the American Civil War and find evidence of endogenous influences.duration models, social interactions, empirical games, optimal stopping

Conditional Moments and Independence

Consider two random variables X and Y. In initial probability and statistics courses, a discussion of various concepts of dissociation between X and Y is customary. These concepts typically involve independence and uncorrelatedness. An example is shown where E(Y^n|X) = E(Y^n) and E(X^n|Y) = E(X^n) for n = 1, 2,… and yet X and Y are not stochastically independent. The bi-variate distribution is constructed using a well-known example in which the distribution of a random variable is not uniquely determined by its sequence of moments. Other similar families of distributions with identical moments can be used to display such a pair of random variables. It is interesting to note in class that even such a degree of dissociation between the moments of X and Y does not imply stochastic independence. and yet X and Y are not stochastically independent. The bi-variate distribution is constructed using a well-known example in which the distribution of a random variable is not uniquely determined by its sequence of moments. Other similar families of distributions with identical moments can be used to display such a pair of random variables. It is interesting to note in class that even such a degree of dissociation between the moments of X and Y does not imply stochastic independence.indeterminate distributions, moments, independence

Inference in a Synchronization Game with Social Interactions

This paper studies inference in a continuous-time game where an agent’s decision to quit an activity depends on the participation of other players. In equilibrium, similar actions can be explained not only by direct influences, but also by correlated factors. Our model can be seen as a simultaneous duration model with multiple decision makers and interdependent durations. We study the problem of determining existence and uniqueness of equilibrium stopping strategies in this setting. This paper provides results and conditions for the detection of these endogenous effects. First, we show that the presence of such effects is a necessary and sufficient condition for simultaneous exits. This allows us to set up a nonparametric test for the presence of such influences which is robust to multiple equilibria. Second, we provide conditions under which parameters in the game are identified. Finally, we apply the model to data on desertion in the Union Army during the American Civil War and find evidence of endogenous influences.duration models; social interactions; empirical games; optimal stopping

Law, environmental policy and Kantian philosophy

Are Kantian philosophy and its principle of respect for persons inadequate to the protection of environmental values? This paper answers this question by elucidating how Kantian ethics can take environmental values seriously. In the period that starts with the Critique of Judgment in 1790 and ends with the Metaphysics of Morals in 1797, the subject would have been approached by Kant in a different manner; although the respect that we may owe to non-human nature is still grounded in our duties to mankind, the basis for such respect stems from nature’s aesthetic properties, and the duty to preserve nature lies in our duties to ourselves. Compared to the “market paradigm”, as it is called by Gillroy (the reference is to a conception of a public policy based on a criterion of economic efficiency or utility), Kantian philosophy can offer a better explanation of the relationship between environmental policy and the theory of justice. Kantian justice defines the “just state” as the one that protects the moral capacities of its “active” citizens, as presented in the first Part of the Metaphysics of Morals. In the Kantian paradigm, the environmental risk becomes a “public” concern. That means it is not subsumed under an individual decision, based on a calculus