This Weeks Seminar

Kevin Denny will give a seminar at 11am on July 4th in the seminar room in the Geary Institute.


The curious effect of education on political behaviour
Kevin Denny, Orla Doyle


Abstract
There is a large literature in economics on the private benefits to individuals of education. It is widely believed that there are additional, social, benefits for example that more educated people display greater levels of civic behaviour. Evidence on this is rather thin. However it has long been known that voting and political interest generally is more common amongst the more educated. This paper questions whether this is a causal relationship. Using data for Ireland we exploit a natural experiment that exogenously changed education levels. This allows us to go beyond the simple correlation of education and voter turnout. It is shown that this has a dramatic effect on the estimated relationship between education and the decision to vote.

Trust Me - Sure I Sprayed Myself So That You Would

The story below is fascinating - I can hardly believe that there is a spray that creates trust. There is potential for including this discovery as a feature in experimental economics work, and thats even more intriguing...

Trust me, I'm oxytocin

"Two years ago New Scientist reported Swiss research showing that a sniff of the hormone oxytocin caused people to be more trusting (4 June 2005, p 7). It made male Swiss students give money to strangers in the belief they would give it back, even though the strangers had every reason not to.

Unsurprisingly, this provoked shock-horror media speculation that politicians and others might spray people with oxytocin to engender trust for nefarious purposes. So what are we to make of the New York-based firm Vero Labs which is marketing oxytocin as a spray called Liquid Trust? "Just one or two sprays in the morning after showering, or in the evening before going out, is guaranteed to produce a more trusting atmosphere," the company claims".

Are Psychological and Ecological Well-being Compatible? The Role of Values, Mindfulness, and Lifestyle

Happiness and ecological well-being are often portrayed as conflictual pursuits, but they may actually be complementary. In samples of adolescents (Study 1) and adults (Study 2), we tested this proposition and examined the role of three factors in promoting both subjective well-being (SWB) and ecologically responsible behavior (ERB). In both studies, individuals higher in SWB reported more ERB. An intrinsic value orientation (Studies 1 and 2) and dispositional mindfulness (Study 2) related to higher SWB and ERB, while a lifestyle of voluntary simplicity (Study 2) related to higher ERB. Further analyses showed that the compatibility of SWB and ERB was explained by intrinsic values and mindfulness. These findings offer clues to a sustainable way of life that enhances both personal and collective well-being.

The Benefits of Being Present: Mindfulness and Its Role in Psychological Well-Being

Many philosophical, spiritual, and psychological traditions emphasize the importance of the quality of consciousness for the maintenance and enhancement of well-being. Despite this, it is easy to overlook the importance of consciousness in human well-being because almost everyone exercises its primary capacities, that is, attention and awareness. The relation between qualities of consciousness and well-being has received little empirical attention. One attribute of consciousness that has been much-discussed in relation to well-being is mindfulness which has roots in Buddhist and other contemplative traditions where conscious attention and awareness are actively cultivated. This research demonstrate the importance of constructs of mindfulness to a variety of forms of psychologicalwell-being(Brown and Ryan).

Neuro-trivia

Hollywood actress Natalie Portman is a cognitive neuroscientist.
http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2007/06/natalie_portman_cog.html

Does Obesity Hurt Your Wages More in Dublin than in Madrid? Evidence from ECHP

BEATRICE D'HOMBRES,,GIORGIO BRUNELLO

IZA Discussion Paper No. 1704

Abstract:
We use data from the European Community Household Panel to investigate the impact of obesity on wages in 9 European countries, ranging from Ireland to Spain. We find that the common impact of obesity on wages is negative and statistically significant, independently of gender. Given the nature of European labor markets, however, we believe that a common impact is overly restrictive. When we allow this impact to vary across countries, we find a negative relationship between the BMI and wages in the countries of the European "olive belt" and a positive relationship in the countries of the "beer belt". We speculate that such difference could be driven by the interaction between the weather, BMI and individual (unobserved) productivity.