Fair Division of Indivisible Items

This paper analyzes criteria of fair division of a set of indivisible items among people whose revealed preferences are limited to rankings of the items and for whom no side payments are allowed. The criteria include refinements of Pareto optimality and envy-freeness as well as dominance-freeness, evenness of shares, and two criteria based on equally-spaced surrogate utilities, referred to as maxsum and equimax. Maxsum maximizes a measure of aggregate utility or welfare, whereas equimax lexicographically maximizes persons' utilities from smallest to largest. The paper analyzes conflicts among the criteria along possibilities and pitfalls of achieving fair division in a variety of circumstances.FAIR DIVISION; ALLOCATION OF INDIVISIBLE ITEMS; PARETO OPTIMALITY; ENVY-FREENESS; LEXICOGRAPHIC MAXIMUM

AN ECONOMETRIC MODEL OF MANUFACTURING EMPLOYMENT GROWTH IN RURAL TENNESSEE COUNTIES FROM 1962 TO 1976

Labor and Human Capital,

Analysis of Gender Disparity in Meghalaya by Various Types of Composite Indices

Subjugation of women in certain spheres of life is very common in the patriarchal societies and it has a long history. In India, women have little social or economic independence. They are treated inequitably at home as much as at the workplace outside. Perhaps, it is so for the Indian society is predominantly patriarchal. However, Meghlaya, a state in North East India, presents a case different than the rest of the country at large (except Kerala and some other pockets). A very large majority of population in the state belongs to three tribes, Garo, Jaintia and Khasi, well known for their being matrilineal (and matrifocal). In this paper we investigate how women in Meghalaya perform, vis-à-vis men, in the socio-economic sphere. The investigation is based on Census of India-2001 data. Two sets of nine variables that measure socio-economic inclusion of people in development have been obtained, first for men and the second for women, and from these variables a composite index has finally been constructed. Many methods of constructing a composite index are discussed and applied on the data for obtaining loadings on the variables. Analytic methods (e.g. principal component/factor analysis) and synthetic methods (MSAR, MEFAR and MMAR) have been compared empirically. We find that the synthetic methods perform better than the analytic methods in representing the constituent variables judiciously and meaningfully. Do matrifocal societies favour women in socio-economic sphere and help achieve gender equality? We conclude that indeed they do so. The tribes of Meghalaya whose societies are organized on matrifocal principles have obtained much greater gender equality than the societies (e.g. Hindu and Muslim) that are organized on the patriarchal principles.Gender equality; Patriarchy; Matriarchy; Matrifocal; Matrilineal; Meghalaya; India; Tribes; Khasi; Garo; Jaintia; composite index; principal component; factor analysis; extraction; rotation; inclusive; synthetic; analytic; indices; absolute correlation; entropy-like function; maximin; Differential Evolution; North East; Hindu; Christian; Muslim; religion

Proposta de um índice de avaliação do potencial dos distritos operacionais do Rio Grande do Sul através de análise fatorial

Esta monografia aborda a construção de índices através da análise fatorial. Análise Fatorial é uma técnica de análise que avalia a relação de várias variáveis, cujo propósito é condensar a informação contida nas variáveis originais, reduzindo a dimensionalidade e formando fatores comuns com urna perda mínima de informação. Para a realização de urna análise fatorial, é necessário escolher o método de estimação dos escores fatoriais e o tipo de rotação dos fatores. Da mesma forma, para a elaboração de alguns índices é necessária a utilização de várias variáveis, portanto, a análise fatorial mostra-se uma técnica capaz de fornecer este índice capturando a informação das variáveis que irão compor o índice. Essa monografia apresenta alternativas de índices resultantes de diferentes combinações entre os métodos de estimação dos escores fatoriais e dos métodos de rotação dos fatores na elaboração de um índice potencial. Para ilustrar estas diferenças, é apresentado um exemplo de aplicação que envolve a criação de um índice que mede a potencialidade para os distritos operacionais do Rio Grande do Sul utilizando alguns métodos de estimação dos escores fatoriais e métodos de rotação dos fatores.This monograph approaches the construction of indexes through the factor analysis. Factor Analysis is an analysis technique that evaluates the relationship of several variables, whose purpose is to condense the information contained in the original variables, reducing the dimensionality and forming factors comrnon with a minimum loss of information. For the accomplishment of a factor analysis, it is necessary to choose the method of estimate of the factorial scores and the type of rotation o f the factors. In the same way, for the elaboration of some indexes are necessary the use of several variables, therefore, the facto r analysis is shown a technique capable to supply this index capturing the information of the variables that will compose the index. This monograph presents alternatives of resulting indexes of different combinations among the methods of estimate of the factorial scores and of the methods of rotation o f the factors in the elaboration o f a potential index. To illustrate these differences, it is presented an application example that involves the creation of an index that measures the potentiality for the operational districts of Rio Grande do Sul using some methods of estimate ofthe factorial scores and methods ofrotation ofthe factors

A preliminary validity study of the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule with a sample of the South African university population

The study investigated the validity of the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule (RAS) with a sample (N=l68) of the white South African undergraduate students. In terms of criterion- related validity, results indicated that ratings of external judges, unaware of their subjects' self-evaluation, correlated significantly with the assertiveness scores of the male subjects only. Construct validation of the RAS with ten personality traits measured by the Howarth Personality Questionnaire yielded results consistent with Wolpe's hypothesis that assertiveness relates inversely to anxiety. In addition, evidence was found to support the contention that assertiveness correlates negatively with inferiority. A principal components analysis of the RAS revealed a potentially useful factor structure for both males and females. A number of factors including situation-specific assertive behavior as well as factors measuring aggressiveness were identified for both sexes