New Economics Papers
on Neuroeconomics
Issue of 2013‒11‒02
three papers chosen by



  1. Social Centipedes: the Impact of Group Identity on Preferences and Reasoning By Le Coq, Chloe; Tremewan, James; Wagner, Alexander K.
  2. ATTACHMENT SECURITY AMONG TODDLERS: THE IMPACTS OF SUPPORTIVE COPARENTING AND FATHER ENGAGEMENT By Sangita Pudasainee-Kapri; Rachel Razza
  3. Early Bird Catches the Worm: The Causal Impact of Pre-school Participation and Teacher Qualifications on Year 3 National NAPLAN Cognitive Tests By Diana Warren; John P. Haisken-DeNew

  1. By: Le Coq, Chloe (Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics); Tremewan, James (Department of Economics, University of Vienna (Austria)); Wagner, Alexander K. (Department of Economics, University of Cologne (Germany))
    Abstract: Using a group identity manipulation we examine the role of social preferences in an experimental one-shot centipede game. Contrary to what social preference theory would predict, we find that players continue longer when playing with outgroup members. Our explanation rests on two observations: (i) players should only stop if they are sufficiently confident that their partner will stop at the next node, given the exponentially-increasing payoffs in the game, and (ii) players are more likely to have this degree of certainty if they are matched with someone from the same group, whom they view as similar to themselves and thus predictable. We find strong statistical support for this argument. We conclude that group identity not only impacts a player’s utility function, as identified in earlier research, but also affects her reasoning about the partner’s behavior.
    Keywords: Group identity; centipede game; prospective reference theory
    JEL: C72 C91 C92 D83
    Date: 2013–09–30
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:hasite:0024&r=neu
  2. By: Sangita Pudasainee-Kapri (Syracuse University); Rachel Razza (Syracuse University)
    Abstract: The present study examined the longitudinal associations among supportive coparenting and father engagement during infancy and mother-child attachment at age three within an at-risk sample (N= 1371), using secondary data from Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing (FFCW) study. Mothers reported on coparenting and father engagement during the one-year phone interview and mother-child attachment was assessed using the Toddler Attachment Sort-39 (TAS-39) at age three during the three-year in-home interview. Findings suggest that supportive coparenting was significantly associated with higher levels of father engagement and more secure mother-child attachment relationship across three racial/ethnic groups including white, African American, and Hispanic. Interestingly, results also support racial/ethnic differences such that after controlling for child sex, infant temperament, family structure and maternal education, father engagement was a significant predictor of secure mother-child attachment only among Hispanic families. In addition, race/ethnicity moderated the link between supportive coparenting and father engagement such that the link was stronger among white families compared to minority families. Results highlight the significance of coparenting and father engagement in relation to mother-child attachment relationship. The implications of these findings for interventions targeting paternal engagement and coparenting among at-risk children are discussed.
    Keywords: Coparenting,; single parent families, Fragile Families, Children, marriage, prison, fathers
    JEL: D10 D60 H31 I30 J12
    Date: 2013–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:crcwel:wp13-01-ff&r=neu
  3. By: Diana Warren (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne); John P. Haisken-DeNew (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne)
    Abstract: Using data from the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Children (LSAC), this is the first analysis for Australia to evaluate the impact of attendance at pre-school programs on matched Year 3 nation-wide NAPLAN test outcomes in the domains of Numeracy, Reading, Spelling, Writing and Grammar. We additionally disaggregate the impact of specific teacher qualifications on children’s cognitive outcomes. While one year of learning in Year 3 is represented by about 50 NAPLAN points, we find average pre-school domain effects as much as 10-15 points, mainly driven by the upper quantiles of the NAPLAN distribution. To address causality issues, we use Kernel matching, whereby the ATTs and ATUs are of the magnitude 10 to 20 NAPLAN points, which are reduced only modestly to about 15 points with additional controls for observed ability. NAPLAN score impacts on Numeracy, Reading and Spelling domains are the strongest and significant with the highest increases in NAPLAN scores being attained by children whose pre-school teachers had Diploma or Degree level (high) qualifications, identifying for the first time the crucial nature of teacher qualifications in driving nationally representative long-run pre-school treatment outcomes.
    Keywords: ATT, causal impact, pre-school, NAPLAN, specialised qualification
    JEL: I21 I28 J24
    Date: 2013–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2013n34&r=neu

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