Guidance for those selling Tobacco Products

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'Lycidas': A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

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Wolves in sheep's clothing: SDO asymmetrically predicts perceived ethnic victimization among White and Latino students across three years

Dominant groups have claimed to be the targets of discrimination on several historical occasions during violent intergroup conflict and genocide.The authors argue that perceptions of ethnic victimization among members of dominant groups express social dominance motives and thus may be recruited for the enforcement of group hierarchy. They examine the antecedents of perceived ethnic victimization among dominants, following 561 college students over 3 years from freshman year to graduation year. Using longitudinal, cross-lagged structural equation modeling, the authors show that social dominance orientation (SDO) positively predicts perceived ethnic victimization among Whites but not among Latinos, whereas victimization does not predict SDO over time. In contrast, ethnic identity and victimization reciprocally predicted each other longitudinally with equal strength among White and Latino students. SDO is not merely a reflection of contextualized social identity concerns but a psychological, relational motivation that undergirds intergroup attitudes across extended periods of time and interacts with the context of group dominance.

Human skin in vitro permeation of bentazon and isoproturon formulations with or without protective clothing suit.

Skin exposures to chemicals may lead, through percutaneous permeation, to a significant increase in systemic circulation. Skin is the primary route of entry during some occupational activities, especially in agriculture. To reduce skin exposures, the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) is recommended. PPE efficiency is characterized as the time until products permeate through material (lag time, Tlag). Both skin and PPE permeations are assessed using similar in vitro methods; the diffusion cell system. Flow-through diffusion cells were used in this study to assess the permeation of two herbicides, bentazon and isoproturon, as well as four related commercial formulations (Basagran(®), Basamais(®), Arelon(®) and Matara(®)). Permeation was measured through fresh excised human skin, protective clothing suits (suits) (Microchem(®) 3000, AgriSafe Pro(®), Proshield(®) and Microgard(®) 2000 Plus Green), and a combination of skin and suits. Both herbicides, tested by itself or as an active ingredient in formulations, permeated readily through human skin and tested suits (Tlag < 2 h). High permeation coefficients were obtained regardless of formulations or tested membranes, except for Microchem(®) 3000. Short Tlag, were observed even when skin was covered with suits, except for Microchem(®) 3000. Kp values tended to decrease when suits covered the skin (except when Arelon(®) was applied to skin covered with AgriSafe Pro and Microgard(®) 2000), suggesting that Tlag alone is insufficient in characterizing suits. To better estimate human skin permeations, in vitro experiments should not only use human skin but also consider the intended use of the suit, i.e., the active ingredient concentrations and type of formulations, which significantly affect skin permeation.

Portfolio delegation under short-selling constraints

In this paper we study delegated portfolio management when themanager's ability to short-sell is restricted. Contrary to previousresults, we show that under moral hazard, linear performance-adjustedcontracts do provide portfolio managers with incentives to gatherinformation. The risk-averse manager's optimal effort is an increasingfunction of her share in the portfolio's return. This result affectsthe risk-averse investor's optimal contract decision. The first best,purely risk-sharing contract is proved to be suboptimal. Usingnumerical methods we show that the manager's share in the portfolioreturn is higher than the rst best share. Additionally, this deviationis shown to be: (i) increasing in the manager's risk aversion and (ii)larger for tighter short-selling restrictions. When the constraint isrelaxed the optimal contract converges towards the first best risksharing contract.

Selling to consumers with endogenous types

For many goods (such as experience goods or addictive goods), consumers preferences may change over time. In this paper, we examine a monopolist s optimal pricing schedule when current consumption can affect a consumer s valuation in the future and valuations are unobservable. We assume that consumers are anonymous, i.e. the monopolist can t observe a consumer s past consumption history. For myopic consumers, the optimal consumption schedule is distorted upwards, involving substantial discounts for low valuation types. This pushes low types into higher valuations, from which rents can be extracted.For forward looking consumers, there may be a further upward distortion of consumption due to a reversal of the adverse selection effect; low valuation consumers now have a strong interest in consumption in order to increase their valuations. Firms will find it profitable to educate consumers and encourage forward looking behavior.

How well do individuals predict the selling prices of their homes?

Self-reported home values are widely used as a measure of housing wealth by researchers employing a variety of data sets and studying a number of different individual and household level decisions. The accuracy of this measure is an open empirical question, and requires some type of market assessment of the values reported. In this research, we study the predictive power of self-reported housing wealth when estimating sales prices utilizing the Health and Retirement Study. We find that homeowners, on average, overestimate the value of their properties by between 5% and 10%. More importantly, we are the first to document a strong correlation between accuracy and the economic conditions at the time of the purchase of the property (measured by the prevalent interest rate, the growth of household income, and the growth of median housing prices). While most individuals overestimate the value of their properties, those who bought during more difficult economic times tend to be more accurate, and in some cases even underestimate the value of their house. These results establish a surprisingly strong, likely permanent, and in many cases long-lived, effect of the initial conditions surrounding the purchases of properties, on how individuals value them. This cyclicality of the overestimation of house prices can provide some explanations for the difficulties currently faced by many homeowners, who were expecting large appreciations in home value to rescue them in case of increases in interest rates which could jeopardize their ability to live up to their financial commitments.

The First privatization : selling SOEs and privatizing public monopolies in fascist Italy, 1922-1925

[cat] El primer govern feixista d’Itàlia va aplicar una política de privatització a gran escala entre 1922 i 1925. El govern va privatitzar el monopoli estatal de llumins, el monopoli estatal d’assegurances de vida, va vendre la major part de la xarxa i serveis de telefònica pública a empreses privades, va reprivatitzar el major productor de productes metàl·lics, i va atorgar concessions a empreses privades per construir i explotar autopistes de peatge. Tot i que algunes consideracions ideològiques van poder tenir alguna influència, la privatització va ser usada sobre tot com un instrument polític per construir confiança amb els grans industrials i per augmentar el suport al govern i al Partito Nazionale Fascista. La privatització també va contribuir a equilibrar el pressupost públic, qüestió aquesta que va ser el principal objectiu de la primera fase de la política econòmica feixista.

The First privatization : selling SOEs and privatizing public monopolies in fascist Italy, 1922-1925

[cat] El primer govern feixista d’Itàlia va aplicar una política de privatització a gran escala entre 1922 i 1925. El govern va privatitzar el monopoli estatal de llumins, el monopoli estatal d’assegurances de vida, va vendre la major part de la xarxa i serveis de telefònica pública a empreses privades, va reprivatitzar el major productor de productes metàl·lics, i va atorgar concessions a empreses privades per construir i explotar autopistes de peatge. Tot i que algunes consideracions ideològiques van poder tenir alguna influència, la privatització va ser usada sobre tot com un instrument polític per construir confiança amb els grans industrials i per augmentar el suport al govern i al Partito Nazionale Fascista. La privatització també va contribuir a equilibrar el pressupost públic, qüestió aquesta que va ser el principal objectiu de la primera fase de la política econòmica feixista.

Am I shrinking? On clothing size and body size.

Comment on: Hughes LA, Schouten LJ, Goldbohm RA, van den Brandt PA, Weijenberg MP. Self-reported clothing size as a proxy measure for body size. Epidemiology. 2009 Sep;20(5):673-6. PMID: 19451821

Amazon.es : incògnites i expectatives. Amb Enric Faura i Pep Torn

Debat a l'Internauta, el primer programa de ràdio del país sobre la xarxa, una col·laboració entre la UOC i Vilaweb. Fa menys d'una setmana que es va confirmar la notícia: la plataforma de comerç electrònic més potent de la xarxa, Amazon, va obrir dimecres de la setmana passada la filial ibèrica. Amazon és actualment el portal de venda en línia més important i divers, amb un catàleg de milions de llibres impresos i electrònics, a més d'un gavadal de productes com ara compactes, DVD, jocs, aparells d'electrònica de consum i, fins i tot, roba, alimentació i mobiliari. De moment, Amazon.es ha aterrat a casa nostra amb una oferta de productes físics, entre els quals hi ha cinquanta mil llibres impresos en català, però obre tantes oportunitats com interrogants. Com afectarà les llibreries convencionals? Tindran mercat ara plataformes de llibre digital més modestes? Estimularà el negoci del llibre electrònic? Facilitarà l'autoedició de llibres? Farà créixer el nombre de lectors en català? En parlem amb Enric Faura, de la plataforma Edi.cat, i amb l'expert Pep Torn, director de l'àrea de Biblioteca i Recursos Documentals de la UOC.

A wolf in sheep"s clothing: carnivory in dominant sea urchins in the Mediterranean

Arbacia lixula and Paracentrotus lividus are the dominant sea urchins in the Mediterranean sublittoral, where they are key structuring species due to their grazing activity. It has been commonly accepted that competition between both species is minimized by specializing in different algal foods. A. lixula is considered to feed mainly on encrusting coralline algae, while P. lividus prefers fleshy macroalgae. We used stable isotope analysis to test if these species occupy different trophic positions at 3 locations in the western Mediterranean and one in Macaronesia. Our results show unambiguously that A. lixula always occupies a higher trophic level than P. lividus, with a δ15N comparable in some locations to strict carnivores such as Actinia schmidti or Marthasterias glacialis. A temporal monitoring at one locality showed that this signature of a higher trophic level is consistent throughout the year. These results are incompatible with the current belief of an herbivorous diet for A. lixula and suggest that it must be considered an omnivore tending to carnivory in Mediterranean ecosystems, feeding at least partially on sessile animals such as Cirripedia, Hydrozoa or Bryozoa. A parallel analysis of gut contents showed a predominance of vegetal items in both species, although A. lixula consistently had a higher abundance of animal components than P. lividus. Our results challenge the validity of using gut content observations alone for characterizing the trophic behaviour of omnivorous marine invertebrates that feed on a variety of food sources with different digestibility.