Showing papers by "School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences published in 2005"
TL;DR: Here, it is suggested that the motor theory of social cognition, which tries to bridge the gap between motor cognition and mindreading by endorsing a simulation account of mindreading, is questionable.
406 citations
TL;DR: The testing of adults of Korean origin who were adopted by European Caucasian families when they were between the ages of 3 to 9 indicates that the face recognition system remains plastic enough during childhood to reverse the other-race effect.
Abstract: Early experience with faces of a given racial type facilitates visual recognition for this type of face relative to others. To assess whether this so-called other-race effect can be reversed by subsequent experience with new types of faces, we tested adults of Korean origin who were adopted by European Caucasian families when they were between the ages of 3 to 9. The adoptees performed a face recognition task with photographs of Caucasian and Asian faces. They performed exactly like a control group of French participants, identifying the Caucasian faces better than the Asiatic ones. In contrast, a control group of Koreans showed the reverse pattern. This result indicates that the face recognition system remains plastic enough during childhood to reverse the other-race effect.
380 citations
TL;DR: The existence and uniqueness results for the stationary equation are proved and the behaviour of the solutions of the evolution equation for large times is analyzed.
Abstract: This paper is concerned with the study of the stationary solutions of the equation where the diffusion matrix A and the reaction term f are periodic in x. We prove existence and uniqueness results for the stationary equation and we then analyze the behaviour of the solutions of the evolution equation for large times. These results are expressed by a condition on the sign of the first eigenvalue of the associated linearized problem with periodicity condition. We explain the biological motivation and we also interpret the results in terms of species persistence in periodic environment. The effects of various aspects of heterogeneities, such as environmental fragmentation are also discussed.
306 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the existence of pulsating fronts describing the biological invasion of the uniform 0 state by a heterogeneous state is proved and the dependency of this speed on the heterogeneity of the medium is also analyzed.
296 citations
TL;DR: This article hypothesized that vowels and consonants in words carry different kinds of information, the latter being more tied to word identification and the former to grammar, and predicted that in a word identification task involving continuous speech, learners would track TPs among consonants, but not among vowels.
Abstract: Speech is produced mainly in continuous streams containing several words. Listeners can use the transitional probability (TP) between adjacent and non- adjacent syllables to segment ''words'' from a continuous stream of artificial speech, much as they use TPs to or- ganize a variety of perceptual continua. It is thus possible that a general-purpose statistical device exploits any speech unit to achieve segmentation of speech streams. Alterna- tively, language may limit what representations are open to statistical investigation according to their specific lin- guistic role. In this article, we focus on vowels and con- sonants in continuous speech. We hypothesized that vowels and consonants in words carry different kinds of infor- mation, the latter being more tied to word identification and the former to grammar. We thus predicted that in a word identification task involving continuous speech, learners would track TPs among consonants, but not among vowels. Our results show a preferential role for consonants in word identification.
259 citations
TL;DR: The results demonstrate that phoneme perception in adults relies on a specific and highly efficient left-hemispheric network, which can be activated in top-down fashion when processing ambiguous speech/non-speech stimuli.
254 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compare several alternative market power tests: a hypothetical market power test, an actual market power testing, and a comparative market test in the context of European mergers, and emphasize the importance of constructing confidence intervals when computing the predicted merger effects.
236 citations
TL;DR: The results show that the distribution of most of the variables significantly related to the perceived risk identified in the first survey had changed in the second survey, in relation with the reduction of worry and the resumption of national beef consumption.
Abstract: Since 1996, when bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was assessed as a possible human transmissible disease, a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), French people have entered into a long period of fear and avoidance of beef and bovine byproducts, which produced an unprecedented collapse in the beef market. This article deals with the perceived risk of the "mad cow disease" (MCD) in the French general population. Two surveys were conducted on a representative sample of the adult population, the first one in 2000 during the peak of the crisis and the second one 13 months later in a quieter period. The main assumption we made was that changes in beef consumption are strongly related to the perceived risk of MCD, which we defined as people's cognitive and affective responses to hazard. Our objective was to identify the determinants and consequences of this perceived risk and to compare them in different sociopolitical contexts. The results issued from a bivariate and multivariate analysis show that: (i) the distribution of most of the variables significantly related to the perceived risk identified in the first survey had changed in the second survey, in relation with the reduction of worry and the resumption of national beef consumption; (ii) the propensity for self-protection through avoiding or ceasing beef eating was more related to feelings of worry than to subjective vCJD risk assessments; and (iii) the main determinant of less avoidance to beef products was the preference for beef, a feeling identified prior to emergence of the risk of MCD, remaining unchanged in various contexts.
158 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, it was shown that the principal eigenvalue of linear elliptic equations with high first-order coefficients is bounded as the amplitude of the coefficients of the first order derivatives goes to infinity if and only if the associated dynamical system has a first integral.
Abstract: This paper is concerned with the asymptotic behaviour of the principal eigenvalue of some linear elliptic equations in the limit of high first-order coefficients. Roughly speaking, one of the main results says that the principal eigenvalue, with Dirichlet boundary conditions, is bounded as the amplitude of the coefficients of the first-order derivatives goes to infinity if and only if the associated dynamical system has a first integral, and the limiting eigenvalue is then determined through the minimization of the Dirichlet functional over all first integrals. A parabolic version of these results, as well as other results for more general equations, are given. Some of the main consequences concern the influence of high advection or drift on the speed of propagation of pulsating travelling fronts.
152 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a combination of theory with empirical evidence on gross job flows and on financial and labour market rents is used to show that recessions result in reduced rather than increased restructuring, and that this is likely to be socially costly once they consider inefficiencies on both the creation and destruction margins.
Abstract: The observation that liquidations are concentrated in recessions has long been the subject of controversy. One view holds that liquidations are beneficial in that they result in increased restructuring. Another view holds that this rise in restructuring is costly since liquidations are privately inefficient and essentially wasteful. This paper proposes an alternative perspective. On the basis of a combination of theory with empirical evidence on gross job flows and on financial and labour market rents, we find that, cumulatively, recessions result in reduced rather than increased restructuring, and that this is likely to be socially costly once we consider inefficiencies on both the creation and destruction margins. Copyright 2005, Wiley-Blackwell.
106 citations
TL;DR: A model of particles jumping on a row of cells, called in physics the one-dimensional totally asymmetric exclusion process (TASEP), is considered and a combinatorial interpretation and a simple proof of these observations are given.
TL;DR: In this article, the relative explanatory power of various hypotheses: institutional complementarity, institutional hierarchy, coevolution, simple compatibility or isomorphism is investigated and three distinct institutional complementarities are at the origin of the more successful national economies since the 90s.
Abstract: What are the forces that make relatively and transitorily coherent the institutional configurations of capitalism? In response to the literature on the variety of capitalisms, this article investigates the relative explanatory power of various hypotheses: institutional complementarity, institutional hierarchy, coevolution, simple compatibility or isomorphism. Compatibility is too often confused with complementarity and it is frequently an ex-post recognition, rarely an ex ante design. Both hybridization and endometabolism are the driving forces in the transformation of institutional configurations. Uncertainty and the existence of some slack in the coupling of various institutions are key features that call for the mixing of various methodologies in order to detect complementarities. This framework is then used in order to show that three distinct institutional complementarities are at the origin of the more successful national economies since the 90s. Thus, institutional diversity is being recreated and the existence of complementarities plays a role in this process.
TL;DR: Using historical income tax statistics and a common methodology, the authors constructed annual top income shares series (often broken down by income source) for over 20 countries covering most of the 20th century.
Abstract: This paper offers an overview of what we have learned from a collective research project on income distribution in the long run. Using historical income tax statistics and a common methodology, we have constructed annual top income shares series (often broken down by income source) for over 20 countries covering most of the 20th century. One important con- clusion is that the decline in income inequality that took place during the first half of the 20th century was mostly accidental, and does not seem to have much to do with a Kuznets-type process. Top capital incomes were hit by major shocks during the 1914-1945 period, and were never able to fully recover from these shocks, probably because of the dynamic impact of pro- gressive income and estate taxation. Our database also allows us to readdress the cross-country analysis of the interplay between inequality and growth with better prospects than with standard databases. (JEL: D31)
TL;DR: In this article, the boundary value problems for systems of elliptic partial differential equations were studied and a contribution to the study of boundary value problem was made to the field of boundary analysis.
Abstract: This paper is a contribution to the study of boundary value problems for systems of elliptic partial differential equations.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the organization of the urban services sector in European countries basically follows three major "models" (i.e., simplified forms of more complex phenomena) and introduce a historical reading of overall choices of institutional and policy architecture.
Abstract: This article takes as its starting point a central issue for the urban social sciences: comparison. Local government is a theme where much is singular, contingent and idiosyncratic, and international comparison reinforces this tendency towards diversity. Therefore, the capacity to generalize becomes a real issue. The central argument of this article is that, beyond any first-level complexity, the organization of the urban services sector in European countries basically follows three major ‘models’. These simplified forms represent ways of combining public policy principles with a market economy. As such, they may be read as specific versions of urban capitalism. All three ‘models’ are European in origin, and nowadays find themselves in competition. In order to establish the features of these models — simplified forms of more complex phenomena — it is necessary to introduce a historical reading of overall choices of institutional and policy architecture. It is necessary to trace the importance of firms and to study the momentum of crisis and tension, as these give an internal view of phenomena that are generally regarded as natural.
Ce texte part d’un probleme central pour les sciences sociales urbaines, celui de la comparaison. L’objet urbain pousse a la singularite; les comparaisons internationales renforcent cette tendance; se pose donc un vrai probleme de generalisation. La these soutenue est qu’au-dela de toute complexite de premier rang, constatee dans l’organisation de chaque service urbain dans les pays europeens, ceux-ci au fond ressortent de trois grands modeles. Ces formes simplifiees, ou modeles, representent autant de manieres de combiner des principes d’action publique a une economie de marche; on peut les lire comme autant de versions du capitalisme urbain. En etant tous les trois representes en Europe ces ‘modeles’ se trouvent aujourd’hui en competition. Pour parvenir a degager ces proprietes modeliques, formes simplifiees de phenomenes plus complexes, il convient d’introduire une lecture historique des grands choix en matieres d’architectures institutionnelles et politiques. Il faut accorder de l’importance aux firmes et suivre les moments de mise en tension; ils permettent de saisir ce qui semble naturel dans le fonctionnement ordinaire.
01 Jun 2005
TL;DR: In this paper, a partir d'une illustration empirique, nous soulignons the possibilite de mettre en avant les traces indirectes de la communication dans le vocabulaire, grâce au concept de temperature informationnelle.
Abstract: L'approche semantique est tres souvent la seule utilisee pour l'interpretation des resultats des analyses automatiques du discours. Dans le cadre de cet article nous nous interessons a l'un de ces logiciels, Alceste, souvent utilise par les chercheurs travaillant dans le domaine des representations sociales. Nous soutenons qu'une approche pragmatique de la communication et du langage est indispensable du point de vue theorique et pratique. A partir d'une illustration empirique, nous soulignons la possibilite de mettre en avant les traces indirectes de la communication dans le vocabulaire, grâce au concept de temperature informationnelle et, par la meme, nous montrons comment obtenir des indices pragmatiques aux cotes d'indices semantiques obtenus par ce logiciel.
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate links between corruption and collusion in procurement and find that collusion is more likely in auctions where firms are small relative to the market, and that self-interested abuse of discretion to extract rents (corruption) provides a mechanism to enforce collusion.
Abstract: This paper investigates links between corruption and collusion in procurement. A first-price multiple-object auction is administered by an agent who has legal discretion to allow for a readjustment of (all) submitted offers before the official opening. The agent may be corrupt, i.e. willing to "sell" his decision in exchange for a bribe. Our main result shows that the corrupt agent's incentives to extract rents are closely linked with that of a cartel of bidders. First, collusive bidding conveys value to the agent's decision power. Second, self-interested abuse of discretion to extract rents (corruption) provides a mechanism to enforce collusion. A second result is that package bidding can facilitate collusion. We also find that with corruption, collusion is more likely in auctions where firms are small relative to the market. Our main message to auction designers, competition authorities and criminal courts is that risks of collusion and of corruption must be addressed simultaneously. Some other policy implications for the design of tender procedures are discussed.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors considered a reaction-diffusion system of KPP type in a shear flow and with a non-zero heat-loss parameter, and established criteria for the flame blow-off and propagation, and identified the propagation speed in terms of the exponential decay of the initial data.
Abstract: We consider a reaction-diffusion system of KPP type in a shear flow and with a non-zero heat-loss parameter. We establish criteria for the flame blow-off and propagation, and identify the propagation speed in terms of the exponential decay of the initial data. We prove the existence of travelling fronts for all speeds c>max(0,c*) in the case Le=1, where c* ∈ ℝ. This seems to be one of the first non-perturbative results on the existence of fronts for the thermo-diffusive system in higher dimensions.
14 Feb 2005
TL;DR: The ley 19.253 de 1993 reconociera la existencia del pluralismo cultural en el territorio nacional de Chile, sentara las bases de la participación indigena en las politicas aplicadas by el Estado a las descendientes de las agrupaciones humanas precolombinas as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Introduccion Antes de que la ley 19.253 de 1993 reconociera la existencia del pluralismo cultural en el territorio nacional y sentara las bases de la participacion indigena en las politicas aplicadas por el Estado a las “etnias descendientes de las agrupaciones humanas precolombinas”(3), los pueblos autoctonos chilenos eran meros objetos del derecho. El papel pasivo que se les atribuia se remite fundamentalmente a la relacion que el Estado chileno establecio desde su inicio con los pueblos in...
TL;DR: In this paper, the structure of the Hopf algebra of matroids with restriction-contraction coproduct was investigated and it was shown that the subalgebra generated by a single point and a single loop in the dual of Hopf is free.
Abstract: This paper is an initial inquiry into the structure of the Hopf algebra of matroids with restriction-contraction coproduct. Using a family of matroids introduced by Crapo in 1965, we show that the subalgebra generated by a single point and a single loop in the dual of this Hopf algebra is free.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the characteristics of gender differences between professional settings of the performing musicians, actors and dancers from the mid-1980s to 2000 and found that women's careers become more vulnerable with passing time.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the effect of average voting rule on the ability of a voting rule to protect minority voters and provided necessary and sufficient conditions for the average outcome to be above the majority outcome.
Abstract: Properties of an average voting rule - the outcome being some weighted average of votes - are investigated, with particular attention to its ability to protect minorities. The unique average voting outcome is characterized with a median formula which depends on the voters’ preferred allocations and some parameters constructed from the voters’ weights. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the average outcome to be above the majority outcome. A minority is said to be protected by a switch in voting rule if the voting outcome becomes closer to the median bliss point of the minority. A sufficient condition for minority protection is that, either the minority’s weight is sufficiently large or the majority outcome is too unfavorable to the minority. Applications to the composition of public goods and to public expenditures level are considered. We end by exploring the combined use of average and majority voting in a two-stage procedure for determining both the level and the composition of public expenditures.
TL;DR: The naive model of feeding behavior determination, stating it stems from individual conscious will, is widespread but fallacious and roots many a failure in diets and public health campaigns as discussed by the authors, and some realistic paths to foster and support change.
Abstract: The naive model of feeding behaviour determination, stating it stems from individual conscious will, is widespread but fallacious and roots many a failure in diets and public health campaigns. Feeding behaviour is determined at three levels: technico-economics, psychology, and sociology. Individual capacity of change, facing a whole system of affordances and habits, is limited. Changes are possible, but not when relying upon individual will alone. We list some realistic paths to foster and support change.
TL;DR: In this article, the feasibility of attachment depends on the inherited structure of local labor markets: attachment can exist in equilibrium only if the labor market is sufficiently concentrated, and an analysis of matched household-firm data from the Russian Federation corroborates the theory.
Abstract: External shocks may cause a decline in the productivity of fixed capital in certain regions of an economy. Exogenous obstacles to migration make it hard for workers in those regions to reallocate to more prosperous regions. In addition, firms may devise 'attachment' strategies to keep workers from moving out of a local labor market. When workers are compensated in kind, they find it difficult to raise the cash needed for migration. This endogenous obstacle to migration has not yet been considered in the literature. The article shows that the feasibility of attachment depends on the inherited structure of local labor markets: attachment can exist in equilibrium only if the labor market is sufficiently concentrated. Attachment is beneficial for both employers and employees but hurts the unemployed and the self-employed. An analysis of matched household-firm data from the Russian Federation corroborates the theory.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors studied the combinatorial, algebraic and geometric properties of the free product operation on matroids and showed that free product is associative and respects matroid duality.
TL;DR: In this paper, a reelle alliance between sciences de la nature, des sciences biotechniques and des sciences sociales is described, and the conditions of such an alliance are discussed.
TL;DR: An empirical study of the psychological aspects of the feel of presence would constitute the pivotal element of such an analysis; it is argued that some interesting lessons can be learned about the ideal goal and the unexplored potentialities offered by new and complex interfaces.
Abstract: An ideal goal of virtual reality technology is to deliver a complete visual and sensorimotor duplicate of an object: a fully integrated haptic and visual set of stimuli that would make us feel as if we are in the ''presence'' of the real object in an ordinary situation. The goal is very ambitious, but what is a measure of success? An analysis of presence is much needed, and one of the main tenets of our paper is that an empirical study of the psychological aspects of the feel of presence would constitute the pivotal element of such an analysis; we shall argue that some interesting lessons can be learned about the ideal goal. To sustain our argument, we consider two case studies in turn. The tunnel effect case teaches us that actual stimulation is neither necessary nor sufficient to convey presence. The picture case teaches us that it is possible to learn how to interact to a high degree of success with very impoverished stimuli and successfully compensate for poor stimulation. Research should thus be oriented not towards potentially useless and costly ''duplication'' of reality, but towards the unexplored potentialities offered by new and complex interfaces.
TL;DR: In this paper, the politique d'internationalisation de la societe Lyonnaise des Eaux (aujourd'hui Suez), and plus particulierement ses transformations internes sur la periode 1980-2004, is discussed.
Abstract: Resume Cet article etudie la politique d'internationalisation de la societe Lyonnaise des Eaux (aujourd'hui Suez), et plus particulierement ses transformations internes sur la periode 1980–2004 : ses etapes, ses proprietes organisationnelles et les principes mis en œuvre. L'argument soutenu est que la firme a mis au point une forme nouvelle lui permettant de faire groupe tout en exploitant des services differents dans un grand nombre de pays : la firme locale–globale. Differente des types existants (firme H, U, M, J), cette forme se caracterise par quatre proprietes : un role central des unites de base (les exploitations), des procedures de reporting vers un centre compact, une assistance du centre, des echanges directs entre unites de base relevant d'un principe de connectivite. L'article s'interroge en conclusion sur les ressorts d'une capacite au changement qui caracterise cette organisation privee a propriete institutionnelle. — Numero special : Les nouveaux formats de l'institution .
TL;DR: The authors investigated and compared how medical scientists and members of the general population reacted to BSE (mad cow disease) in France and found that non-scientists tended to express much more concern about BSE-related risk than scientists, even when socio-demographic variables were controlled.
Abstract: Social studies of risk repeatedly have found substantial divergences in the way that experts/scientists and members of the general public appraise risks associated with health and environmental hazards. However, empirical evidence for these differences remains controversial. A recent review of literature suggests in particular that divergences between experts and lay people may potentially result from confounding socio‐demographic factors. The purpose of the present article is to investigate and to compare how medical scientists and members of the general population reacted to BSE (“mad cow disease”) in France. A sample of 401 scientists belonging to the French Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and a representative sample of 902 French citizens were asked about their cognitive, affective and behavioural responses to BSE. Results show that non‐scientists tended to express much more concern about BSE‐related risk than scientists, even when socio‐demographic variables were controlled. However...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the impact of alternative tax benefits systems on household welfare, using the theory of optimal taxation with the distribution of potential wages replaced by the distribution for household abilities.
Abstract: In this work we explore the impact of alternative tax benefits systems on household welfare. The framework of our analysis is the theory of optimal taxation with the distribution of potential wages replaced by the distribution of household abilities. The latter has been calculated by inversion of the household's utility maximization problem. This methodology has then been implemented in order to compare the tax benefits systems of France and the United Kingdom. We have employed a behavioral micro-simulation model that has been applied on samples extracted from the "Households Budget Survey 1989" of INSEE and from the "Family Expenditure Survey" of ONS.