When All is Said and Done, How Should You Play and What Should You Expect?

Modern game theory was born in 1928, when John von Neumann published his Minimax Theorem. This theorem ascribes to all two-person zero-sum games a value–what rational players may expect–and optimal strategies–how they should play to achieve that expectation. Seventyseven years later, strategic game theory has not gotten beyond that initial point, insofar as the basic questions of value and optimal strategies are concerned. Equilibrium theories do not tell players how to play and what to expect; even when there is a unique Nash equilibrium, it it is not at all clear that the players “should” play this equilibrium, nor that they should expect its payoff. Here, we return to square one: abandon all ideas of equilibrium and simply ask, how should rational players play, and what should they expect. We provide answers to both questions, for all n-person games in strategic form.

Monetary Equilibria over an Infinite Horizon.

Money provides liquidity services through a cash-in-advance constraint. The exchange of commodities and assets extends over an infinite horizon under uncertainty and a sequentially complete asset market. Monetary policy sets the path of rates of interest and accommodates the demand for balances. A public authority, inheriting a strictly positive public debt, raises revenue from taxes and seignorage. Competitive equilibria exist, under mild solvency conditions. But, for a fixed path of rates of interest, there is a nontrivial multiplicity of equilibrium paths of prices of commodities. Determinacy requires that, subject to no-arbitrage and in addition to rates of interest, the prices of state-contingent revenues be somehow determined.money; equilibrium; indeterminacy; monetary policy; fiscal policy

Why does the Engel method work? Food demand, economies of size and household survey methods

Estimates of household size economies are needed for the analysis of poverty and inequality. This paper shows that Engel estimates of size economies are large when household expenditures are obtained by respondent recall but small when expenditures are obtained by daily recording in diaries. Expenditure estimates from recall surveys appear to have measurement errors correlated with household size. As well as demonstrating the fragility of Engel estimates of size economies, these results help resolve a puzzle raised by Deaton and Paxson (1998) about differences between rich and poor countries in the effect of household size on food demand

The linked survival prospects of siblings : evidence for the Indian states

This paper reports an analysis of micro-data for India that shows a high correlation in infant mortality among siblings. In 13 of 15 states, we identify a causal effect of infant death on the risk of infant death of the subsequent sibling (a scarring effect), after controlling for mother-level heterogeneity. The scarring effects are large, the only other covariate with a similarly large effect being mother’s (secondary or higher) education. The two states in which evidence of scarring is weak are Punjab, the richest, and Kerala, the socially most progressive. The size of the scarring effect depends upon the sex of the previous child in three states, in a direction consistent with son-preference. Evidence of scarring implies that policies targeted at reducing infant mortality will have social multiplier effects by helping avoid the death of subsequent siblings. Comparison of other covariate effects across the states offers some interesting new insights

Sen and the art of educational maintenance: evidencing a capability, as opposed to an effectiveness, approach to schooling

There are few more widely applied terms in common parlance than ‘capability’. It is used (inaccurately) to represent everything from the aspiration to provide opportunity to notions of innate academic ability, with everything in between claiming apostolic succession to Amartya Sen, who (with apologies to Aristotle) first developed the concept. This paper attempts to warrant an adaptation of Sen’s capability theory to schooling and schooling policy, and to proof his concepts in the new setting using research involving 100 pupils from 5 English secondary schools and a schedule of questions derived from the capability literature. The findings suggest that a capability approach can provide an alternative to the dominant Benthamite school effectiveness paradigm, and can offer a sound theoretical framework for understanding better the assumed relationship between schooling and well-being

Rural poverty reduction strategy for South Asia

Roughly 40 percent of the worlds poor live in South Asia, where poverty is basically a rural problem. Therefore, a significant gain in rural poverty reduction in this sub-region will be crucial to reach the international poverty reduction target. Based on the analysis and experience of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), this paper argues that to be successful, poverty reduction policies in South Asia must focus on the less-favoured rural areas and on most disadvantaged sections of the rural poor (mainly women, the landless and indigenous peoples). In order to overcome disadvantages arising from remoteness, lack of social services, insecure and unproductive jobs, and discrimination as women or ethnic minorities, the rural poor need legally secure access to productive assets (mainly land, forests and water); sustainable or regenerating agricultural technology; access to markets; opportunities to participate in decentralized resource management; and access to financial services

Caste, Kinship, and Life Course: Rethinking Women's Work and Agency in Rural South India

This paper reexamines the linkages between women's work, agency, and well-being based on a household survey and in-depth interviews conducted in rural Tamil Nadu in 2009 and questions the prioritization of workforce participation as a path to gender equality. It emphasizes the need to unpack the nature of work performed by and available to women and its social valuation, as well as women's agency, particularly its implications for decision making around financial and nonfinancial household resources in contexts of socioeconomic change. The effects of work participation on agency are mediated by factors like age and stage in the life cycle, reproductive success, and social location – especially of caste – from which women enter the workforce

Monitoring Repair of UV-Induced 6-4-Photoproducts with a Purified DDB2 Protein Complex

Because cells are constantly subjected to DNA damaging insults, DNA repair pathways are critical for genome integrity [1]. DNA damage recognition protein complexes (DRCs) recognize DNA damage and initiate DNA repair. The DNA-Damage Binding protein 2 (DDB2) complex is a DRC that initiates nucleotide excision repair (NER) of DNA damage caused by ultraviolet light (UV) [2]-[4]. Using a purified DDB2 DRC, we created a probe ("DDB2 proteo-probe") that hybridizes to nuclei of cells irradiated with UV and not to cells exposed to other genotoxins. The DDB2 proteo-probe recognized UV-irradiated DNA in classical laboratory assays, including cyto- and histo-chemistry, flow cytometry, and slot-blotting. When immobilized, the proteo-probe also bound soluble UV-irradiated DNA in ELISA-like and DNA pull-down assays. In vitro, the DDB2 proteo-probe preferentially bound 6-4-photoproducts [(6-4)PPs] rather than cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs). We followed UV-damage repair by cyto-chemistry in cells fixed at different time after UV irradiation, using either the DDB2 proteo-probe or antibodies against CPDs, or (6-4)PPs. The signals obtained with the DDB2 proteo-probe and with the antibody against (6-4)PPs decreased in a nearly identical manner. Since (6-4)PPs are repaired only by nucleotide excision repair (NER), our results strongly suggest the DDB2 proteo-probe hybridizes to DNA containing (6-4)PPs and allows monitoring of their removal during NER. We discuss the general use of purified DRCs as probes, in lieu of antibodies, to recognize and monitor DNA damage and repair