The Essential Role of Altruism in Medical Decision Making
In: NBER Working Paper No. w32151
In: NBER Working Paper No. w32151
SSRN
SSRN
In: International migration: quarterly review
ISSN: 1468-2435
AbstractRecently, the role of personal ties in migration decisions has received considerable attention. However, this aspect has seldom been studied in the context of retirement. This paper addresses this gap by shedding light on the composition of personal networks, types of mobility patterns and retirement locations for four groups of older adults. To this end, two methodological approaches are employed: (1) a qualitative Social Network Analysis to examine the composition of older adults' personal networks and (2) thematic coding to analyse the relational aspects of migration decisions. This paper draws on 29 semi‐structured interviews conducted in Spain and Switzerland in 2020 and 2021. The findings demonstrate that pre‐retirement migration trajectories shape personal network composition. Moreover, personal ties play a critical role in older adults' mobility patterns and choices of retirement location. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the impact of personal networks on migration decisions of older adults.
Blog: Verfassungsblog
On March 28, 2024, a majority decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Dickson v. Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation held that Canada's constitutional bill of rights, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms ("the Charter"), applied against an Indigenous government's residency requirements for election to the government's Council. However, the majority also held that a section of the Charter that offers some protective effect for Indigenous governments would protect this residency requirement from a challenge under the Charter. The case reaches significant determinations but with some messy splits amongst the seven justices who sat on the case.
"Research Ethics in Applied Economics Emphasizing the new challenges posed by the data science revolution, digital media, and changing standards, Research Ethics in Applied Economics examines the ethical issues faced by the applied economics researcher at each stage of the research process. The first section of the book considers project development, including issues of project management, selection bias in asking research questions, and political incentives in the development and funding of research ideas. The second section addresses data collection and analysis, discussing concerns about participant rights, data falsification, data management, specification search, p-hacking, and replicability. The final section focuses on sharing results with academic audiences and beyond, with an emphasis on self-plagiarism, self-promotion, and the importance of achieving policy impact. The discussion and related recommendations highlight emergent issues in research ethics. Featuring case studies from experienced researchers on how they address ethical issues, this book provides practical guidance to both students and experienced practitioners seeking to navigate ethical issues in their applied economics research"--
In: Russia in global affairs, Band 22, Heft 1, S. 94-109
Amid its confrontation with the West, Moscow faces the pressing need to reexamine its approach to alliance-building. Currently Moscow has to foster low-profile countersanction alignments. Meanwhile, the prospect of an armed clash with the United States and NATO makes one think about alliances that would strengthen Russia's conventional deterrence. Formalizing defense commitments with China becomes an important prerequisite for addressing the increasingly reckless Western coercion. The traditional counterarguments against a Russia-China alliance appear obsolete now that the U.S. directly designates Russia and China as adversaries, openly expands its military presence at their borders, gears up military buildup, and mobilizes its allies. For Russia, an alliance with China would diminish reliance on the threat of nuclear retaliation and increase flexibility of its deterrence posture.
In: Journal of accounting and public policy, Band 43, S. 107159
ISSN: 0278-4254
In: Economic Analysis and Policy, Band 81, S. 238-248
"Have you ever experienced a decision situation that was hard to come to grips with? Did you ever feel a need to improve your decision-making skills? Is this something where you feel that you have not learned enough practical and useful methods? In that case, you are not alone! Even though decision-making is both considered and actually also is a very important skill in modern work-life as well as in private life, these skills are not to any reasonable extent taught in schools at any level. No wonder many people do indeed feel the need to improve but have a hard time finding out how. This book is an attempt to remedy this shortcoming of our educational systems and possibly also of our common, partly intuition-based, decision culture. Intuition is not at all bad, quite the contrary, but it has to co-exist with rationality. We will show you how. Methods for decision-making should be of prime concern to any individual or organization, even if the decision processes are not always explicitly or even consciously formulated. All kinds of organizations, as well as individuals, must continuously make decisions of the most varied nature in order to prosper and attain their objectives. A large part of the time spent in any organization, not least at management levels, is spent gathering, processing, and compiling information for the purpose of making decisions supported by that information. The same interest has hitherto not been shown for individual decision-making, even though large gains would also be obtained at a personal level if important personal decisions were better deliberated. This book aims at changing that and thus attends to both categories of decision-makers. This book will take you through a journey starting with some history of decision-making and analysis and then go through easy-to-learn ways of structuring decision information and methods for analyzing the decision situations, beginning with simple decision situations and then moving on to progressively harder ones, but never losing sight of the overarching goal that the reader should be able to follow the progression and being able to carry out similar decision analyses in real-life situations"--
In: A Chapman & Hall book
"Toolbox for Social Scientists and Policy Analysts covers predictive methods with complementary statistical "tools" that make it mostly self-contained. The inferential statistics is the traditional framework for most data analytics courses in social science and business fields, especially in Economics and Finance. The new organization that this book offers goes beyond standard machine learning code applications, providing intuitive backgrounds for new predictive methods that social science and business students can follow. The book also adds many other modern statistical tools complementary to predictive methods that cannot be easily found in "econometrics" textbooks: nonparametric methods, data exploration with predictive models, penalized regressions, model selection with sparsity, dimension reduction methods, nonparametric time-series predictions, graphical network analysis, algorithmic optimization methods, classification with imbalanced data, and many others. This book is targeted at students and researchers who have no advanced statistical background, but instead coming from the tradition of "inferential statistics". The modern statistical methods the book provides allows it to be effectively used in teaching in the social science and business fields"--
In: TATuP - Zeitschrift für Technikfolgenabschätzung in Theorie und Praxis / Journal for Technology Assessment in Theory and Practice, Band 33, Heft 1, S. 9-13
Although artificial intelligence (AI) and automated decision-making systems have been around for some time, they have only recently gained in importance as they are now actually being used and are no longer just the subject of research. AI to support decision-making is thus affecting ever larger parts of society, creating technical, but above all ethical, legal, and societal challenges, as decisions can now be made by machines that were previously the responsibility of humans. This introduction provides an overview of attempts to regulate AI and addresses key challenges that arise when integrating AI systems into human decision-making. The Special topic brings together research articles that present societal challenges, ethical issues, stakeholders, and possible futures of AI use for decision support in healthcare, the legal system, and border control.
In: Foresight: the journal of future studies, strategic thinking and policy
ISSN: 1465-9832
Purpose
Despite significant progress in Iran's immunization programs, vaccine policymaking in the country still faces various challenges and shortcomings. To address these issues and ensure sustained progress toward achieving comprehensive vaccination policies, it is essential to identify the critical factors influencing vaccine policies in Iran. Our study aims to provide evidence-based insights that can inform the development of effective and equitable vaccine strategies, leading to a more sustainable and efficient approach to vaccination in the country.
Design/methodology/approach
This mixed-method study aimed to analyze the factors influencing the future of human vaccine policy using Cross Impact Analysis. Firstly, a scoping review was conducted to identify the factors affecting the future of human vaccine development. Secondly, a semi-structured interview was conducted with experts in this field to add more factors and confirm the identified factors within the Iranian context. Finally, a Cross-Impact Analysis (CIA) approach was applied to comprehend the complex relationships between the identified factors. Thematic analysis was used for the qualitative data, and MICMAC analysis was applied to characterize the relationships between the factors.
Findings
Seventeen key driving force factors were identified through comprehensive review and interviews. These factors were assigned weighted values ranging from zero to three and subsequently analyzed using MICMAC software. Employing the Cross-Impact Analysis (CIA) technique, the study characterized the impact of each factor on vaccine policy and elucidated the intricate interactions between them. The findings underscored that robust leadership and governance, an innovative ecosystem, and well-established immunization information systems emerged as pivotal driving forces shaping vaccine policy in Iran.
Research limitations/implications
While this study contributes valuable insights into the driving factors influencing vaccine policy in Iran, it is important to acknowledge several limitations. The results rely on the subjective perceptions of a diverse group of specialists, and future research could delve into additional factors in other countries to identify common themes and differences.
Practical implications
This study provides evidence to assist policymakers in making informed decisions regarding vaccines in Iran. The findings suggest that enhancing access to vaccines, fostering trust in the healthcare system, and prioritizing equity in distribution can contribute to increased vaccination rates and a reduction in vaccine-preventable diseases.
Originality/value
This study provides a unique contribution to the field of vaccine policy by utilizing the cross-impact analysis to examine the complex interactions among various factors. The results of this analysis demonstrate that these interactions can significantly impact the overall system, highlighting the need for policymakers to consider multiple factors when formulating effective strategies. By revealing the significance of these interactions, this research offers valuable insights into the development of successful policies that can shape a desirable future for vaccine policy in Iran. Future studies could ratify the findings from this research by applying other methodological approaches.
Blog: Between The Lines
There's much less to the eye regarding the ultimate
impact of the decision
recently rendered in Nairne
v. Landry than the possibility this case eventually could upend reapportionment
jurisprudence very much in the opposite direction of the ruling.
The case involves reapportionment of Louisiana's
legislative districts after the 2020 census, involving plaintiffs similar to
those in the winding-down case regarding reapportionment
of its congressional districts. In that other case, the same Middle
District of Louisiana Judge Shelly Dick ruled an expansive reading of Title 2
of the Voting Rights Act that gives race (given certain circumstances) preference
over other traditional principles of reapportionment (absent compelling
circumstances), essentially sidestepping the text of the law that says it does
not normally confer proportional representation of racial minorities in a state.
In ruling that the state had to draw a map with
two of six black majority-minority districts because about a third of the
population identified as black, which impelled the Legislature to do precisely
that although its product almost certainly is constitutionally defective because
in order to do that race took on a dominant role in making the map, Dick
applied the same rubric to legislative districts. The legal backing for this
she derived from a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that affirmed custom
over the past six decades and an expanded view of the VRA language as developed
through past court cases allowed for elevating the place of race.
The Legislature was given no deadline to swap in a
new map, where it is implied that at least two more Senate and six more House
seats became M/M. (Keep in mind, however, that no case ever has been decided on
the merits validating the proportional argument, much less ended up being
applied by a government by court order.) Practically speaking, this doesn't become
an issue until at latest the start of 2027 for fall elections that year.
While some observers without a comprehensive
understanding of the issues blithely assume the
Legislature will do this, chance are much greater it never will come that.
(Actually, given the greater tolerances courts permit for malapportionment and
for adhering to other principles of reapportionment when it comes to offices
other than Congress, the partisan balance would change little as both chambers
could draw new maps that essentially swap out elected white Democrats with
black Democrats.) That's because the case has at least one time bomb included
that could blow up the current interpretation of the VRA Section 2 and
guarantees when plaintiffs plea for a remedy (at
present, special elections with a new map later this year) the state will appeal
and many motions later serve it up to the Court. Nothing politically will
happen for some time to come.
There's actually another aspect that could cause
this: a split between federal appellate court circuits on whether private
parties can bring suits under that law, which guarantees eventual Supreme Court
intervention. However, existing
jurisprudence suggests that the Court will reject the argument no private
right of action exists, which for Nairne is irrelevant anyway because
the Fifth Circuit holds that view.
The state as defendant articulated that defense,
but Dick rejected it precisely because the Circuit had done so. But while the main
land mine of questioning over the current interpretation of the VRA Section 2 she
could dodge for now, ultimately she can't make go away.
That results from the Assoc. Justice Brett Kavanaugh
concurrence
in the case that granted race its new privileged place. In it, he questioned
whether that privileging had become timebound, as the nature of society about
race has changed substantially in the decades since, but didn't adjudicate that
because that other case didn't bring it up.
But Louisiana unambiguously did forward that
argument in a filing in Nairne. Dick addressed the issue in her ruling
as minimally as she dared in dismissing it, which isn't unusual (as well allows
her decision to reflect her own political preferences). Lower court judges are
extremely reluctant to base rulings on any Court opinions not the majority,
leaving that up to the Court itself.
However, that avoidance doesn't make the issue go
away. Undoubtedly the state will appeal and it's inconceivable that the Court at
some point wouldn't take up the case on those constitutional grounds (as well
as perhaps others dealing with the statute) – unless another case elsewhere (for
example) gets there first. And the tone from the previous case suggests the
Court would strike down the expansive reading of Section 2 as timebound.
Chances are excellent even with the inevitable string
of appeals this reversal will happen before 2027. In the final analysis, the Nairne
ruling changes little, and expect Louisiana to do little in response to it
except continue to fight the case up to the Supreme Court.
In: TATuP - Zeitschrift für Technikfolgenabschätzung in Theorie und Praxis / Journal for Technology Assessment in Theory and Practice, Band 33, Heft 1, S. 28-33
As arbiters of law and fact, judges are supposed to decide cases impartially, basing their decisions on authoritative legal sources and not being influenced by irrelevant factors. Empirical evidence, however, shows that judges are often influenced by implicit biases, which can affect the impartiality of their judgment and pose a threat to the right to a fair trial. In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has been increasingly used for a variety of applications in the public domain, often with the promise of being more accurate and objective than biased human decision-makers. Given this backdrop, this research article identifies how AI is being deployed by courts, mainly as decision-support tools for judges. It assesses the potential and limitations of these tools, focusing on their use for risk assessment. Further, the article shows how AI can be used as a debiasing tool, i. e., to detect patterns of bias in judicial decisions, allowing for corrective measures to be taken. Finally, it assesses the mechanisms and benefits of such use.
In: The COVID-19 pandemic series
Women on the edge of COVID-19 : a clinical focus on family, work and community / Mariam Seedat-Khan and Johanna O. Zulueta -- Intimate partner violence in pandemic times : the experiences of pregnant women in Ibadan North, Oyo State Nigeria / Oluwatobi Alabi and Favour Atinuke Akindele -- COVID-19 and gender-based violence : experiences of Zimbabwean flood victims / Takunda Mathathu, Mariam Seedat-Khan, and Thomas Gumbo -- Autoethnography as a lens to understand women and COVID-19 care in South Africa / Kezia Lewins -- Community health workers : a narrative enquiry of experiences about working through COVID-19 in Jharkhand, India / Ujjwala Gupta -- The Association of People with Sickle Cell Disease (APEDFI) and Black Women with Sickle Cell Disease in Ilhéus-BA (Brazil) during The COVID-19 pandemic : a sociological analysis / Flávia Alessandra de Souza and Maria Noemia das Neves Conceição -- Filipina caregivers and mental health under COVID-19 : impacts of transnational obligations and precarious work on migrant care workers in the United States / Valerie Francisco-Menchavez, Elaika Janin Celemen, Edwin Carlos, and Chloe Janelle Punsalan -- Supermarket women cashiers closing social distancing gaps : the artificial world of affective labour? / Amber Blake, Khayaat Fakier, and Marjorie L. Naidoo -- Lest we forget the individual behind the successful woman : chronicles of Indonesian domestic helpers in Malaysian households / Kalai Vaani Rajandram -- Deaf women in Malaysia : the unspoken truth about their experiences and challenges amidst COVID-19 pandemic / Wan Puspa Melati -- Female academics' career progression and motivation during COVID-19 : an African perspective / Rashmi Watson, Upasana G Singh and Chenicheri Sid Nair -- The Impact Of COVID-19 school policies on assistant language teachers in Japan / Tricia Abigail Santos Fermin and Johanna O. Zulueta -- The educational impact Of COVID-19 on lone mothers in the global south / Aradhana Ramnund-Mansingh and Mariam Seedat-Khan -- Women's memories in Brazilian Pandemic Times : narratives of migrants to reframe histories / Fernanda Coelho Liberali, Viviane Letícia Silva Carrijo, Daniela Aparecida Vieira, Joyce Suellen Lopes Dias, and Vanessa Cristina da Cunha Caires -- Impact of COVID-19 on policy and support services for migrant women experiencing DV in semi-rural areas of the UK / Loreen Chikwira and Alicja Blada Edgeley -- At whose cost? : vulnerable female migrants with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) during the COVID-19 crisis in England / Benedicte Brahic, Kim Heyes, and Shoba Arun -- Women behind bars in the United States : a hidden and vulnerable population in pandemic times / Daniela Jauk-Ajamie -- "Food or Data" : the realities of the online teaching transition during COVID-19 in South Africa / Mariam Seedat-Khan, Quraisha Dawood, and Aradhana Ramnund-Mansingh -- New clinical sociology for a post-COVID-19 world / Jayanathan Govender and Usha Rana -- Reflections on COVID-19 : interventions and changes / Mariam Seedat-Khan and Johanna O. Zulueta.