This chapter aims to develop one of perhaps multiple specifications of embeddedness, a concept that has been used to refer broadly to the contingent nature of economic action with respect to cognition, social structure, institutions, and culture. Research on embeddedness is an exciting area in sociology and economics because it advances understanding of how social structure affects economic life. The chapter addresses propositions about the operation and outcomes of interfirm networks that are guided implicitly by ceteris paribus assumptions. While economies of time due to embeddedness have obvious benefits for the individual firm, they also have important implications for allocative efficiency and the determination of prices. Under the conditions, social processes that increase integration combine with resource dependency problems to increase the vulnerability of networked organizations. The level of investment in an economy promotes positive changes in productivity, standards of living, mobility, and wealth generation.

Social Structure and Competition in Interfirm Networks: The Paradox of Embeddedness

because observed behavior is the result of interactions between environmental factors and genes during the extended period of development. Therefore, to better understand expert and exceptional performance, we must require that the account specify the different environmental factors that could selectively promote and facilitate the achievement of such performance. In addition, recent research on expert performance and expertise (Chi, Glaser, & Farr, 1988; Ericsson & Smith, 1991a) has shown that important characteristics of experts' superior performance are acquired through experience and that the effect of practice on performance is larger than earlier believed possible. For this reason, an account of exceptional performance must specify the environmental circumstances, such as the duration and structure of activities, and necessary minimal biological attributes that lead to the acquisition of such characteristics and a corresponding level of performance. An account that explains how a majority of individuals can attain a given level of expert performance might seem inherently unable to explain the exceptional performance of only a small number of individuals. However, if such an empirical account could be empirically supported, then the extreme characteristics of experts could be viewed as having been acquired through learning and adaptation, and studies of expert performance could provide unique insights into the possibilities and limits of change in cognitive capacities and bodily functions. In this article we propose a theoretical framework that explains expert performance in terms of acquired characteristics resulting from extended deliberate practice and that limits the role of innate (inherited) characteristics to general levels of activity and emotionality. We provide empirical support from two new studies and from already published evidence on expert performance in many different domains.

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The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance.

Introduction 1. Woman's Place in Man's Life Cycle 2. Images of Relationship 3. Concepts of Self and Morality 4. Crisis and Transition 5. Women's Rights and Women's Judgment 6. Visions of Maturity References Index of Study Participants General Index

In a Different Voice. Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge, MA (Harvard University Press) 1982.

It is a daunting honor to deliver the inaugural Pool Lecture. Ithiel de Sola Pool was a brilliant, broad-gauged scholar whose interests ranged from the Nazi elite to direct satellite broadcasting, from the first rigorous computer simulation of electoral behavior to the development of network theory, from which he invented "small world" research. He helped found the field of political communications. A graduate of the University of Chicago's political science department during its classic golden age, and first chair of the MIT political science department, Pool must also have been a remarkable teacher, for his students continue to contribute to our understanding of technology, communications, and political behavior. When I accepted this honor, I did not guess how close my own inquiry would lead me to Pool's own professional turf. I shall return to the contemporary relevance of Pool's insights at the conclusion of this talk.

/pdf/tuning-in-tuning-out-the-strange-disappearance-of-social-3t8cmwg5sg.pdf

Tuning In, Tuning Out: The Strange Disappearance of Social Capital in America

Obesity is heritable and predisposes to many diseases To understand the genetic basis of obesity better, here we conduct a genome-wide association study and Metabochip meta-analysis of body mass index (BMI), a measure commonly used to define obesity and assess adiposity, in up to 339,224 individuals This analysis identifies 97 BMI-associated loci (P 20% of BMI variation Pathway analyses provide strong support for a role of the central nervous system in obesity susceptibility and implicate new genes and pathways, including those related to synaptic function, glutamate signalling, insulin secretion/action, energy metabolism, lipid biology and adipogenesis

https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/40202/1/nihms-668049%281%29.pdf

Genetic studies of body mass index yield new insights for obesity biology

This paper examines the scientific, public policy, and organizational background out of which the Health and Retirement Study emerged. It describes the evolution of the major parameters of the survey and the unique planning structure designed to ensure that the substantive insights of the research community were fully reflected in the content of the database, highlights key survey innovations contained in the HRS, and provides a preliminary assessment of the quality of the data as reflected by sample size, sample composition, response rate, and survey content. The paper also describes the several types of administrative data that are expected to be added to the HRS data: earnings and benefits from Social Security files, and health insurance and pension data from the employers of survey respondents.

An Overview of the Health and Retirement Study

https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/94753/1/wp258.pdf

The allocation of time: empirical findings, behavioral models and problems of measurement

Time, Goods, and Well-Being

The measurement and structure of household wealth

Individuals' preferences underlying most economic behavior are likely to display substantial heterogeneity. This paper reports on direct measures of preference parameters relating to risk tolerance, time preference, and intertemporal substitution. These experimental measures are based on survey respondents' choices in hypothetical situations. The questions are constructed with as little departure from the theorist's concept of the underlying parameter as possible. The individual measures of preference parameters display substantial heterogeneity. The majority of respondents fall into the least risk-tolerant group, but a substantial minority display higher risk tolerance. The individual measures of intertemporal substitution and time preference also display substantial heterogeneity. The mean risk tolerance is 0.25; the mean elasticity of intertemporal substitution is 0.2. Estimated risk tolerance and the elasticity of intertemporal substitution are essentially uncorrelated across individuals. Because the risk tolerance measure is obtained as part of the main questionnaire of a large survey, it can be related to a number of economic behaviors. Measured risk tolerance is positively related to a number of risky behaviors, including smoking, drinking, failing to have insurance, and holding stocks rather than Treasury bills. Although measured risk tolerance explains only a small fraction of the variation of the studied behaviors, these estimates provide evidence about the validity and usefulness of the measures of preference parameters.

F. Thomas Juster

Papers

An Overview of the Health and Retirement Study

The allocation of time: empirical findings, behavioral models and problems of measurement

Time, Goods, and Well-Being

The measurement and structure of household wealth

Preference Parameters and Behavioral Heterogeneity: An Experimental Approach in the Health and Retirement Survey