Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

2022-6 Prices, Profits, Proxies, And Production, Victor H. Aguiar, Nail Kashaev, Roy Allen

Department of Economics Research Reports

This paper studies nonparametric identification and counterfactual bounds for heterogeneous firms that can be ranked in terms of productivity. Our approach works when quantities and prices are latent, rendering standard approaches inapplicable. Instead, we require observation of profits or other optimizing-values such as costs or revenues, and either prices or price proxies of flexibly chosen variables. We extend classical duality results for price-taking firms to a setup with discrete heterogeneity, endogeneity, and limited variation in possibly latent prices. Finally, we show that convergence results for nonparametric estimators may be directly converted to convergence results for production sets.

2022-3 A Random Attention And Utility Model, Nail Kashaev, Victor H. Aguiar

Department of Economics Research Reports

We generalize the stochastic revealed preference methodology of McFadden and Richter (1990) for finite choice sets to settings with limited consideration. Our approach is nonparametric and requires partial choice set variation. We impose a monotonicity condition on attention first proposed by Cattaneo et al. (2020) and a stability condition on the marginal distribution of preferences. Our framework is amenable to statistical testing. These new restrictions extend widely known parametric models of consideration with heterogeneous preferences.

2022-8 Slutsky Matrix Symmetry: A New Behavioral Condition, Victor H. Aguiar, Roberto Serrano

Department of Economics Research Reports

The Slutsky matrix function encodes all the information about local variations in demand with respect to small (Slutsky) compensated price changes. When the demand function is the result of utility maximization the Slutsky matrix is symmetric. However, symmetry does not imply rationality. Here, we provide a necessary and sufficient condition for Slutsky symmetry. The new condition requires symmetric attention to compensated price-paths.

2022-9 A Rationalization Of The Weak Axiom Of Revealed Preference, Victor H. Aguiar, Per Hjertstrand, Roberto Serrano

Department of Economics Research Reports

Samuelson’s (1938) weak (generalized) axiom of revealed preference– WGARP–is a minimal and appealing consistency condition of choice. We offer a rationalization of WGARP in general settings. Our main result is an exact analog of the celebrated Afriat’s theorem, but for WGARP. Its ordinal rationalization is in terms of an asymmetric and locally nonsatiated preference function. Its cardinal rationalization uses a coalitional multi-utility (CMU) maxmin representation with a coherency restriction on the coalition structure. Effectively, the CMU representation aggregates piecemeal preferences within the decision maker (multiple rationales without preference reversals that allow for transitivity violations). Basic consumer theory and welfare analysis …

2022-11 Peter Howitt – A Keynesian Still In Recovery, David Laidler

Department of Economics Research Reports

Peter Howitt is best known for his contributions to growth theory, but his work in short-run economics, which began with his Ph.D thesis and still continues, is important and deserves attention. It lies firmly in the Keynesian macro-disequilibrium tradition of Clower and Leijonhufvud, and for a long time has been overshadowed by New-classical and New-Keynesian orthodoxy. However, the development of agent based modelling and behavioural economics will perhaps give disequilibrium macroeconomics a new lease on life.

2022-13 Savings After Retirement, Eric French, John Bailey Jones, Rory Mcgee

Department of Economics Research Reports

Abstract: Retired households, especially those with high lifetime income, decumulate their wealth very slowly, and many die leaving large estates. The three leading explanations for the ‘retirement savings puzzle” are the desire to insure against uncertain lifespans and medical expenses, the desire to leave bequests to one’s heirs, and the desire to remain in one’s own home. We discuss the empirical strategies used to differentiate these motivations, most of which go beyond wealth to exploit additional features of the data. The literature suggests that all the motivations are present, but has yet to reach a consensus about their relative importance

2022-12 The Big Expansion Of Rural Secondary Schooling During The Cultural Revolution And The Returns To Education In Rural China, Mengbing Zhu, Terry Sicular

Department of Economics Research Reports

During the Cultural Revolution China embarked on a dramatic, albeit temporary, expansion of secondary education in rural areas that affected tens of millions of children who reached secondary school age in the late 1960s and 1970s. The conventional wisdom is that this expansion was politicized and low quality. Using instrumental variables estimation, we exploit variation in the expansion across localities and birth cohorts to estimate the impact of Cultural Revolution education on individual outcomes. Creative use of historical county-level information matched with rich household survey data from the mid-1990s allows analysis of multiple outcomes. We find a significant, positive effect …

2022-1 The Role Of Non-Pecuniary Considerations: Location Decisions Of College Graduates From Low Income Backgrounds, Yifan Gong, Todd Stinebrickner, Ralph Stinebrickner, Yuxi Yao

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

We examine the initial post-college geographic location decisions of students from hometowns in the Appalachian region that often lack substantial high-skilled job opportunities, focusing on the role of non-pecuniary considerations. Novel survey questions allow us to measure the full non-pecuniary benfits of each relevant geographic location, in dollar equivalents. A new specification test is designed and implemented to provide evidence about the quality of these non-pecuniary measures. Supplementing perceived location choice probabilities and expectations about pecuniary factors with our new non-pecuniary measures allows a new approach for obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the importance of pecuniary and non-pecuniary factors for …

2022-2 A Task-Based Theory Of Occupations With Multidimensional Heterogeneity, Sergio Ocampo

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

I develop an assignment model of occupations with multidimensional heterogeneity in production tasks and worker skills. Tasks are distributed continuously in the skill space, whereas workers have a discrete distribution with a finite number of types. Occupations arise endogenously as bundles of tasks optimally assigned to a type of worker. The model allows us to study how occupations respond to changes in the economic environment, making it useful for analyzing the implications of automation, skill-biased technical change, offshoring, and worker training. Using the model, I characterize how wages, the marginal product of workers, the substitutability between worker types, and the …

Do Question Topic And Placement Shape Breakoff Rates, Luke Plutowski, Elizabeth Zechmeister

Workshop: Survey Design Under Constraints

No abstract provided.

How Worried Should We Be? The Implications Of Fabricated Survey Data For Political Science, Oscar Castorena, Mollie Cohen, Noam Lupu, Elizabeth Zechmeister

Workshop: Survey Design Under Constraints

No abstract provided.

Parents’ Attitudes Regarding Their Children’S Play And Sport During Covid-19, Monika B. Szpunar, Leigh M. Vanderloo, Brianne A. Bruijns, Stephanie Truelove, Shauna M. Burke, Jason Gilliland, Jennifer D. Irwin, Patricia Tucker

Geography & Environment Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health measures have interrupted the daily routines of parents and children. The purpose of this study was to explore parents’ attitudes regarding their children’s play/sport during COVID-19. A secondary objective was to explore the influence of parent demographics and parent-reported physical activity levels and risk tolerance on these attitudes. Ontario parents of children aged 12 and younger completed an online survey (August—December 2020) that assessed their attitudes (grouped by support, safety and socialization-related attitudes; n = 14 items) regarding their child(ren)’s play/sport, their physical activity levels (n = 2 items), and demographic details …

Research Project Rubric, Wlura Adjudication Committee

WLURA Documents

No abstract provided.

Sample Wlura Application (Humanities), Wlura Adjudication Committee

WLURA Documents

No abstract provided.

Bibliography Rubric, Wlura Adjudication Committee

WLURA Documents

No abstract provided.

Research Reflections Rubric, Wlura Adjudication Committee

WLURA Documents

No abstract provided.

Instructor Or Project Advisor Recommendation Form, Wlura Adjudication Committee

WLURA Documents

No abstract provided.

Research Worksheet, Wlura Adjudication Committee

WLURA Documents

No abstract provided.

Sample Wlura Application (Sciences), Wlura Adjudication Committee

WLURA Documents

No abstract provided.

Living Connections With The Dead: An Anthropological Exploration Of Relics Cared For By The Roman Catholic Diocese, London, Ontario., Sydney Durham, Naomi Nakahodo, Natalie Stephens, Ashley Ward, Kaylee Woldum

Archaeology eBook Collection

This monograph is the class project for a course entitled “Mortuary Archaeology”. The goal of the course is to engage students with the cross-cultural and deep temporal examination of how different societies deal with death.

The project arose from conversations between the course instructor, Andrew Nelson, and the archivist for the Roman Catholic Diocese of London, Debra Majer, in August of 2021. After an initial meeting with Debra on February 9th, the students began the process of building project proposals surrounding the theme of sacred relics. After approval by Nelson and Majer, the five students from Western University started their …

C-Dem Annual Report 2022, Allison Harell, Laura Stephenson

Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

Another Digital Divide: Cybersecurity In Indigenous Communities, Laura Huey, Lorna Ferguson

Sociology Publications

The Indigenous ‘digital divide’ relates to community-level disparities in access and use of online technologies, a prominent public policy issue that federal governments have attempted to address. Following from such efforts is an expected increase in communication and other technologies. However, concurrently, cybersecurity becomes a matter warranting consideration, as increased access means increased exposure to online harms for which many Indigenous communities may lack awareness, education, and prevention skills. To offer key insights relevant to this matter, this study conducted a systematic review of research pertaining to Indigeneity and cybersecurity issues. Findings show that critical subject areas, such as human …

Cyberpolicing In Canada: A Scoping Review, Laura Huey, Lorna Ferguson

Sociology Publications

A recent stream of government efforts have surfaced in an attempt to tackle cybercrime in Canada and improve law enforcement responses to cybercrime, such as funding, actionable intelligence, and the creation of new policing response units. However, we know little of ‘what works’ with respect to cyberpolicing, meaning that these endeavours, and policymakers and funding organizations, are operating without such insights. Therefore, this study sought to conduct an evidence assessment into research on cybercrime-related topics through a scoping review. Our findings show that the overall volume of Canadian cyberpolicing literature is low, and many important subjects are entirely lacking in …

Collaborative Research On Elections: Elections Saskatchewan, Michael Boda

C-Dem Forum 2022

No abstract provided.

Diversity And Canadian Electoral Democracy: Racial Discrimination At The Polls? The Case Of Jugmeet Singh, Matthew Polacko, Allison Harell

C-Dem Forum 2022

No abstract provided.

Partisanship And American Nationalism: C-Dem Forum, Leonie Huddy, Alessandro Del Ponte, Jacob Martin, Caitlin Davies

C-Dem Forum 2022

No abstract provided.

Diversity And Canadian Electoral Democracy: Racial Attitudes And Party Evaluation In Canada 1988 To 2021, Randy Besco, J. Scott Matthews

C-Dem Forum 2022

No abstract provided.

Collaborative Research On Elections: Élections Québec, Monica Rosales

C-Dem Forum 2022

No abstract provided.

Pluralism In Canada: Intergroup Relations And Belonging: Evidence From The Canada Report Of The Global Pluralism Monitor, Daniel Westlake, Caroline Dick, Keith Banting

C-Dem Forum 2022

No abstract provided.

Canadian Provincial Elections During The Covid-19 Pandemic: C-Dem Forum, Jean-Nicolas Bordeleau, Holly Ann Garnett

C-Dem Forum 2022

No abstract provided.