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on Neuroeconomics |
| By: | Zach Weingarten (University of Pennsylvania); Jere R. Behrman (University of Pennsylvania); Andrew Postlewaite (University of Pennsylvania) |
| Abstract: | Social-skill formation during adolescence depends on peer environments, but those environments are equilibrium outcomes shaped by individual choices. To account for this endogeneity, we develop and estimate a dynamic model in which parents invest in adolescents, adolescents choose whether to participate in social activities (athletics and extracurricular clubs), and these choices jointly determine the neighborhood-peer environment that influences the accumulation of social skills, cognitive skills, and mental health. The model matches empirical patterns of skill accumulation, parental investment, and activity participation among U.S. adolescents, and links terminal adolescent-skill stocks to adult educational attainment and labor-market outcomes. In policy counterfactuals, subsidizing parental investment generates large gains in college completion and earnings, and subsidizing club participation generates larger long-run gains than subsidizing athletic participation. We also find that a counterfactual that eliminates peer effects reduces athletic and club participation by 15 and 9 percentage points, terminal adolescent social and cognitive skills by 0.05–0.08 standard deviations, college completion by 3%, and adult income by nearly 1%. |
| Keywords: | social skills, skill formation, peer effects, parental investments, adolescent development, athletics, clubs |
| JEL: | I24 J24 |
| Date: | 2026–03–26 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pen:papers:26-004 |
| By: | Shinsuke ASAKAWA; Mayuko ABE; Fumio OHTAKE; Shinpei SANO; Kazuko NAKATA |
| Abstract: | Using administrative data from Amagasaki City (2019–2023), this study identified the factors associated with long-term absenteeism among elementary and junior high school students. Ordinary least square regressions revealed that students with low mathematics scores and those from single-parent or welfare-recipient households faced a higher risk of long-term absenteeism. Regarding non-cognitive skills, lower levels of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability, and higher openness correlated with increased absenteeism. Notably, the probability of long-term absence remains substantially higher in 2023 than in 2019, even after controlling these characteristics. Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition shows that the increase in absenteeism during the COVID-19 pandemic was not driven by changes in student attributes but by the amplified impact of academic achievement, non-cognitive skills, and family environment. For elementary school students, class size was also an influential factor. However, a significant portion of the increase remains unexplained by the observed variables, suggesting that uncaptured structural or environmental shifts likely played substantial roles. |
| Date: | 2026–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:26026 |
| By: | de Souza Melo, Edervaldo José |
| Abstract: | This article examines how Brazilian law may frame, protect, and discipline personal cognitive systems based on artificial intelligence that store persistent memories, recurrent instructions, decision-making patterns, interaction records, and personal assistance functions. It starts from the premise that, when such systems are structured as a functional extension of the holder’s memory, practical identity, and decision-making organization, they cannot be fully reduced either to the generic category of digital assets or to the ordinary framework of personal data protection. The legal problem becomes especially acute in cases of supervening civil incapacity and death of the holder, where patrimonial, existential, succession-related, and informational interests converge. The article adopts a doctrinal and civil-constitutional approach grounded in normative analysis, systematic interpretation, and examination of relevant institutional and judicial materials under Brazilian law. It argues that the Brazilian legal order already contains partial normative bases for the protection of such systems, but in a fragmented and insufficient manner, thus requiring a coordinated reinterpretation of succession law, personality rights, digital law, preventive representation mechanisms, and informational self-determination. As a theoretical contribution, the article proposes that these systems should be internally distinguished into at least three legally relevant layers: transmissible patrimonial elements, existentially protected elements, and persistent instructional elements capable of sustaining practical continuity in situations of incapacity or death. The conclusion defends interpretive criteria for custody, access, transmission, restriction, and termination of such systems, with a view to protecting the holder’s will, privacy, and the legitimate interests of third parties |
| Date: | 2026–04–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:lawarc:arqb7_v1 |