Empirical testing of the expected utility model

Suppose an individual is faced with a set of alternatives with uncertain money outcomes, then according to the expected utilily moded the alternative with the highest cxpected utility will be chosen. In the present paper this model is tested against the more general model given by Kahneman and Iversky (1979) and others. As contrasted with usual practice, the test is based on an exogenously measured utility function. The result of the test is that the expected utility model has to be rejected, both for a concavee and for an S-shaped specification of the utility function. The subjective evaluation of an objectve probability of 0.5 is in this study estimated at a value of 0.45 or 0.47. depending on the functional specification used.Our main conclusion is that although the hypotlicsis of expected utility has to be rejected, for practical purposes the difference between 0.5 and 0.45 (0.47) is so slight, that the hypothesis is a good working approximation. We do not know whether this remains true for valus of the objective probability considerably different from 0.5.     

Teaching population dynamics with a simulation exercise

Because many students learn general points best by an empirical demonstration rather than by a purely analytical approach, most of the mysteries of the formation and the evolution of a population under the action of mortality and fertility can be conveniently demonstrated on a computer in the form of population projections under various assumptions. Such an exercise can be simple and yet constitute a powerful teaching tool. Not only will it enable the student to observe the effects of central demographic processes but also it will serve to integrate through concrete applications many of the more technical concepts usually covered in an introductory population course, but rarely made meaningful to average beginning students. An easily administrable exercise along these lines is described in hopes that other instructors in population courses will find it as useful a teaching device as we did.     

Factual versus representational utilities and their interdimensional comparisons

In spite of the formal analogy of multidimensional individual choice (MIC) to social choice (SC), interdimensional utility comparisons do result from MIC but interpersonal utility comparisons do not result from SC. This anomaly is clarified via the basic differences between MIC and SC, and related to the distinction between representational a posteriori and factual a priori measurement based on, respectively, a biconditional and a uniconditional correspondence rule. Sen's notion of partial interpersonal comparability of utility is shown to be solely in the realm of factual measurement.     

Network constraints on social action: preliminaries for a network theory

The network approach to social reality lacks a theoretical body that backs up the assumption of the working of structural rules. This contribution is an attempt toward investigation of the possibility of a theory of the effects of network properties on social action. The structure and effects of social networks vary along with the aims put forward in the relations of which they are composed. Considering those aims, three different sorts of networks can be distinguished — sentiment-, interest- and power-networks — involving distinct action logics. When the nature of the ties is known, predictions about the structure of the resulting social networks, type of social control and type of exchange taking place within them, can be made.     

Raising Societal Support for Development Cooperation: The Role of Students’ Exchange Programs

This article analyzes the development education and exchange activities of the Dutch development organization Edukans with its longstanding experience in the “Going Global” program among secondary schools in The Netherlands. Based on a survey with 186 direct participants in the foreign exchange program and 608 schoolmates at 126 secondary schools, a detailed analysis is made of differences in knowledge, attitudes, and behavior with respect to international cooperation, and tolerance regarding ethnic minorities. To guarantee unbiased impact assessment, the same data is collected among 276 students of a comparison group. Propensity score-matching techniques are used for data analysis, controlling for intrinsic differences among the three groups. Results show that international exchange programs have a significant positive impact on all four dimensions of societal support of the direct participants compared to their schoolmates. Only knowledge and attitudes changes are registered in the scores of the schoolmates compared to the comparison group. These outcomes remain robust when corrected for individual and school characteristics, parental background, and political preferences, and when unobserved heterogeneity is included.