Perceived Inflation Persistence

This article constructs and estimates a measure called perceived inflation persistence that can be used to determine if professional forecasters’ inflation forecasts indicate there has been a change in inflation persistence. This measure is built via the implied autocorrelation function that follows from the estimates obtained using a forecaster-specific state-space model. Findings indicate that U.S. perceived inflation persistence has changed since the mid-1990s with more consensus among forecasters at lower levels of persistence. When compared to the autocorrelation function for actual inflation, forecasters typically react less to shocks to inflation than the actual inflation data would suggest.     

Israeli and Polish Policies toward Returning Residents as a Reflection of Nationhood

This study focuses on Poland and Israel, both commonly classified as ethnic nation-states, and aims to question the expression of ethnic–civic dichotomy in return-migration policies. Policy documents in each country were analysed and complemented by interviews with policymakers and representatives from relevant organizations. Our analysis reveals that, although there are differences in their policies toward returning residents and in the related programmes in both countries, Israeli and Polish policies include both ethnic and civic components. Therefore, our study supports Joppke's (2005) argument that there is no purely civic or ethnic nationalism and there can be no purely civic or ethnic nation. We show that the proportion of ethnic and civic elements may change over time; thus, our findings contribute to the growing literature pointing to the dynamic nature of nationalism.     

No city for migrant women: construction workers’ experiences of exclusion from urban governance and discrimination in labour markets in Ahmedabad

ABSTRACT

Ahmedabad, Gujarat, is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, and a reflection of India’s story of exclusionary economic growth. This article focuses on research carried out with women construction workers with the help of a migrant construction workers’ union in Ahmedabad. It describes the method used by women members of the union to make visible their experiences as migrants in the city – with men, local authorities, and employers – to highlight the additional burdens that they bear due to a negligent state and industry, advocate for better working and living conditions, and raise consciousness of gender inequalities that need to be integrated into the demands of the workers’ union.     

Differential Pricing for Information Sharing Under Competition

We consider a two‐echelon supply chain with a manufacturer supplying to multiple downstream retailers engaged in differentiated Cournot competition. Each retailer has private information about uncertain demand. The manufacturer is the Stackelberg leader who sets the contract terms with the retailers, and benefits from retailers sharing their private information. When all retailers are given the same wholesale price, truthful information sharing is not an equilibrium outcome. We propose two variants of differential pricing mechanisms that induce truthful information sharing by all retailers. The first variant rewards a retailer for providing optimistic information and achieves truthful information sharing as a unique equilibrium. The differential pricing mechanism is optimal in the class of linear‐price, incentive‐compatible, direct mechanisms. The second variant, which incorporates provision for a fixed payment in addition to wholesale prices, preserves all the equilibrium properties of the first variant and additionally “nearly coordinates” the supply chain. Our analysis of differential pricing with a fixed payment provides interesting observations regarding the relationship between product substitutability, number of retailers, information precision, and market power. As products become closer substitutes and/or number of retailers increase, the manufacturer's market power increases, enabling her to extract a larger fraction of the supply chain surplus.     

Attachment and leader's development via experiences

Apart from biographies and memoirs of outstanding leaders, studies on the development of leaders in everyday life from childhood to maturity are rare. We propose a developmental model of leaders in which certain variables formed in early childhood are the basic components for leadership development in later life. These are a low level of trait anxiety [Spielberger, C.D. (1972). Conceptual and methodological issues in anxiety research. In C.D. Spielberger (Ed.), Anxiety: Current trends in theory and research. New York: Academic Press, vol. 1] and openness to experiences [Costa, P.T. Jr., & McCrae, R.R. (1992a). Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources]. We argue that secure attachment style [Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Attachment. New York: Basic Books] explains the formation and influence of these basic components, which in turn affect the leader's development through experience in leadership roles. Questionnaires were administered to 286 subjects. The data obtained were analyzed by structural equation modeling (SEM).The findings show that trait anxiety and openness to experience affect leaders' development via experiences. Alternative models in which formative variables may affect the magnitude and intensity of leadership experiences are discussed.     

Adoption of Mobile Telephony in Rural India: An Empirical Study

Mobile telephony has become one of the major factors driving the social and economic development of a country. The objective of this article is to identify factors affecting the adoption of mobile telephony in rural India and examine their impact on its adoption. An explanatory empirical methodology with sequential design was used for this purpose, and new factors that affect users’ decisions to adopt mobile telephony in rural India were identified. We extended the technology acceptance model by integrating new factors for a developing nation. This study found that ensuring service transparency and identifying opinion leaders in the local community are key requirements for increasing the speed of adoption in the rural India. The findings of this study will provide insights for service providers and policy makers to develop strategies and policies that will enhance mobile telephony adoption in rural India.     

Turning the Car Inside Out: Transport, Equity and Environment

"Turning the car inside out" describes how the environmental damage and social exclusion inflicted by the car can only be seen from outside the car. It explains how car use has reshaped land, time use, social relations and economic patterns. It creates ever more pressures for increased car use, yet inevitably leaves the people temporarily or permanently excluded from cars having to negotiate car distances and times. The worst scenario of car saturation is rejected as untenable both because of the permanent social and environmental impact, but also the self-defeating nature of the quest for mobility.     

On generalized conditional cumulative residual inaccuracy measure

Abstract

Recently, the notion of cumulative residual Rényi’s entropy has been proposed in the literature as a measure of information that parallels Rényi’s entropy. Motivated by this, here we introduce a generalized measure of it, namely cumulative residual inaccuracy of order α. We study the proposed measure for conditionally specified models of two components having possibly different ages called generalized conditional cumulative residual inaccuracy measure. Several properties of generalized conditional cumulative residual inaccuracy measure including the effect of monotone transformation are investigated. Further, we provide some bounds on using the usual stochastic order and characterize some bivariate distributions using the concept of conditional proportional hazard rate model.     

Immigrants’ Sense of Belonging to the Host Country: The Role of Life Satisfaction,Language Proficiency,and Religious Motives

This paper focuses on a significant concept in migration studies: immigrants’ sense of belonging to the host society. Drawing upon the literature of immigration and subjective well-being, we proposed a model in which life satisfaction is a major predictor of immigrants’ sense of belonging, and is explained by background variables including religious affiliation, religious motivation, native language proficiency and ethnic segregation. The study was based on a survey of two groups of highly skilled migrants in Israel; immigrants from France and the Former Soviet Union who moved to Israel in the last two decades. The findings suggest that, as expected, life satisfaction had a significant influence on immigrants’ sense of belonging and served as a mediator variable in the model. Whereas ethnic segregation was not found to be a significant parameter in the model, religious motivation and Hebrew language proficiency were found to be prominent. In light of the literature, we also discuss the importance of religious motivations to immigrants’ subjective well-being, identity, and sense of belonging.

     

Post-reform India’s automotive-iconic-cement assemblages: uneven globality,territorial spectacle and iconic exhibition value

India’s post-liberalisation landscape has unexpectedly been populated by monumental iconic statues. These statues, co-emergent with an automobile and construction boom and an attendant resignification and revaluing of land, are a productive site for rethinking the role of spectacle in neoliberal globalisation from the locus of post-liberalisation India. Against theories that characterise spectacle as primarily virtual and deterritorialised, they illuminate how spectacle is enmeshed in the imaginaries, spatial politics, material processes and heterogeneous temporalities of uneven development. Their religious aspect also calls for a re-examination of Benjamin’s distinction between cult value and exhibition value.