Adaptive Preferences Research Articles

Symposium on Amartya Sen's philosophy: 5 Adaptive preferences and women's options

Any defense of universal norms involves drawing distinctions among the many things people actually desire. If it is to have any content at all, it will say that some objects of desire are more central than others for political purposes, more indispensable to a human being's quality of life. Any wise such approach will go even further, holding that some existing preferences are actually bad bases for social policy. The list of Central Human Capabilities that forms the core of my political project contains many functions that many people over the ages have preferred not to grant to women, either not at all, or not on a basis of equality. To insist on their centrality is thus to go against preferences that have considerable depth and breadth in traditions of male power. Moreover, the list contains many items that women over the ages have not wanted for themselves, and some that even today many women do not pursue – so in putting the list at the center of a normative political project aimed at providing the philosophical underpinning for basic political principles, we are going against not just other people's preferences about women, but, more controversially, against many preferences (or so it seems) of women about themselves and their lives. To some extent, my approach, like Sen's, avoids these problems of paternalism by insisting that the political goal is capability, not actual functioning, and by dwelling on the central importance of choice as a good. But the notion of choice and practical reason used in the list is a normative notion, emphasizing the critical activity of reason in a way that does not reflect the actual use of reason in many lives.

Women and human development: the capabilities approach

Acknowledgments Preface Introduction Feminism and international development 1. In defense of universal values 2. Adaptive preferences and women's options 3. The role of religion 4. Love, care, and dignity.

Implementing Cost‐Benefit Analysis when Preferences are Distorted

Cost‐benefit analysis is routinely used by government agencies in order to evaluate projects, but it remains controversial among academics. This paper argues that cost‐benefit analysis is best understood as a welfarist decision procedure and that use of cost‐benefit analysis is more likely to maximize overall well‐being than is use of alternative decision procedures. The paper focuses on the problem of distorted preferences. A person's preferences are distorted when his or her satisfaction does not enhance that person's well‐being. Preferences typically thought to be distorted in this sense include disinterested preferences, uninformed preferences, adaptive preferences, and objectively bad preferences; further, preferences may be a poor guide to maximizing aggregate well‐being when wealth is unequally distributed. The paper describes conditions under which agencies should correct for distorted preferences, for example, by constructing informed or nonadaptive preferences, discounting objectively bad preferences, and treating people differentially on the basis of wealth.

Liberalism, Adaptive Preferences, and Gender Equality

I argue that a gendered division of labor is often the result of choices by women that count as fully voluntary because they are an expression of preferences and commitments that reflect women's understanding of their own good. Since liberalism has a commitment to respecting fully voluntary choices, it has a commitment to respecting these gendered choices. I suggest that justified political action may require that we fail to respect some people's considered choices.

Multi-expert operational risk management

Operational risk management is the process of monitoring, evaluating, and changing courses of actions with potential detrimental consequences in real time. In this paper, we extend the decision models proposed in the literature for individual risk managers to account for situations where multiple risk managers are involved. For this purpose, two dynamic and adaptive preference aggregation models for cardinal and ordinal assessments are proposed and discussed. The mechanical aspects of the models are then validated using field data collected from experienced operational risk managers in an individual-expert setting. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the models have enough flexibility to be adapted to account for behavioral considerations. The paper closes with a research agenda.

Adaptive Host Preference and the Dynamics of Host–Parasitoid Interactions

Models of two independent host populations and a common parasitoid are investigated. The hosts have density-dependent population growth and only interact indirectly by their effects on parasitoid behavior and population dynamics. The parasitoid is assumed to experience a trade-off in its ability to exploit the two hosts. Three alternative types of parasitoid are investigated: (i) fixed generalists whose consumption rates are those that maximize fitness; (ii) “ideal free” parasitoids, which modify their behavior to maximize their rate of finding unparasitized hosts within a generation; and (iii) “evolving” parasitoids, whose capture rates change between generations based on quantitative genetic determination of the relative attack rates on the two hosts. The primary questions addressed are: (1) Do the different types of adaptive processes stabilize or destabilize the population dynamics? (2) Do the adaptive processes tend to equalize or to magnify differences in host densities? The models show that adaptive behavior and evolution frequently destabilize population dynamics and frequently increase the average difference between host densities.

Implementing Cost-Benefit Analysis when Preferences are Distorted

Cost-benefit analysis is routinely used by government agencies in order to evaluate projects, but it remains controversial among academics. The standard defense appeals to the Pareto standard or the Kaldor-Hicks standard, and assumes that agencies should respect people's actual preferences, as opposed to informed or otherwise restricted preferences. This paper argues that cost-benefit analysis is best understood as a welfarist decision procedure, and its most plausible defense is that use of cost-benefit analysis is more likely to maximize overall well-being than is use of alternative decision-procedures. The paper focuses on the problem of using cost-benefit analysis when preferences are distorted. A person's preferences are distorted when their satisfaction does not enhance that person's well-being. Preferences typically thought to be distorted in this sense include disinterested preferences, uninformed preferences, adaptive preferences, and objectively bad preferences; further, preferences may be a poor guide to maximizing aggregate well-being when wealth is unequally distributed. We argue that government agencies currently recognize these problems but respond to them in an ad hoc way, and that a more systematic treatment of these problems is warranted. The paper describes conditions under which agencies should (or should not) correct for distorted preferences, for example, by constructing informed or non-adaptive preferences, discounting objectively bad preferences, and treating people differentially on the basis of wealth. Institutional and political constraints - the inability of agencies to make lump sum transfers, the need for transparency - are also considered.

Liberalism, Consent, and the Problem of Adaptive Preferences

Soulevant le probleme des preferences adaptatives, selon lequel les preferences des gens sont determinees par le contexte sociopolitique dans lequel il vivent, l'A. mesure le role que joue l'adaptativite des preferences dans la justification des politiques gouvernementales. D'un point de vue feministe, l'adaptativite des preferences aux circonstances oppressives met en cause la valeur du consentement de la personne et constitue une objection a la theorie politique liberale

Endogenous Preferences and the Study of Institutions

The assumption that individual preferences, or attitudes, are fixed and exogenously determined is central to many studies of political and economic institutions, such as markets and elections. We present a Bayesian model of adaptive preferences and empirical evidence consistent with that model to argue that preferences are not always exogenous and fixed. The changing relationships between partisanship and preferences on civil rights issues between 1956 and 1964 and on the Vietnam War issue between 1968 and 1972 coincide with significant changes in the major parties' positions on these issues, suggesting that preferences are endogenous to the electoral process. We conclude with a discussion of the positive and normative implications of endogenous preferences.

Sphagnum mosses as a microhabitat for invertebrates in acidified lakes and the colour adaptation and substrate preference in Leucorrhinia dubia (Odonata, Anisoptera)

The increase of peat mosses. Sphagnum spp, in acidified lakes leads to a changed microhabitat structure for benthic invertebrates The importance of this change was investigated for some benthic invertebrates Comparisons between quantitative samples of Sphagnum and debris within the acidified Lake Stora Hastevatten, in the Lake Gårdsjon catchment of SW Sweden, showed significantly higher abundances of Chironomidae, Ceratopogonidae, Odonata, Trichoptera, Cladocera and Argyroneta aquatica (Araneae) in Sphagnum For Chironomidae and Cladocera the differences were tenfoldSpecial reference was made to the libellulid Leucorrhinia dubia which is common in acid lakes In a laboratory test, late instar larvae of L dubia were shown to be able to change colour to correspond to the brown and green colour of Sphagnum This result was completed with a field test where larvae of L dubia were significantly more common in Sphagnum of the same colour as the larvae The ability to change colour may have an adaptive value when coexisting with visual predators Small larvae, 4‐5 mm, were significantly more prevalent in Sphagnum and they also showed significant preference for this substrate in the laboratory test For medium‐sized larvae, 12‐14 mm, a tendency to prefer Sphagnum was found in the laboratory testLarvae of L dubia were shown to be more successful as predators on Asellus aquaticus in Sphagnum substrate than in debris in the laboratory testLaboratory predation tests with Notonecta glauca, Corixa dentipes, Acilius sulcatus, Hyphydrus ovatus and L dubia showed that they could all feed on larvae of L dubia The complex habitat structure of Sphagnum is probably the reason for the high abundance of invertebrates since it may serve as both shelter against predation and as foraging sites It is probably important as a key habitat for young instars of, for example, L dubia In lakes with large Sphagnum mats, L dubia can coexist with fishThe expansion of Sphagnum due to acidification will probably benefit many acid‐tolerant invertebrate species

Adaptive Preferences and the Theory of Demand

(1984). Adaptive Preferences and the Theory of Demand. Journal of Post Keynesian Economics: Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 551-560.

POLLINATION INTERACTIONS IN SYMPATRIC DICENTRA SPECIES

The pollination of a large mixed population of Dicentra canadensis and D. cucullaria was studied in a beech‐maple forest in southwestern Ohio. Analyses of pollinator frequencies and species, pollinator behavior, sugar components and concentrations in nectar, corbicular pollen loads carried by pollinators, spectral reflectance from corollas including ultraviolet reflectance, fragrance, blooming phenology, insect‐related fertility, and hybridization potentials suggested that these sympatric Dicentra species are reproductively isolated by internal mechanisms but not by external barriers to hybridization. Both species were exclusively and obligately dependent upon queen bumblebees for their pollination unlike other members of the spring ephemeral flora to which they belong. The occurrence of one or both species in one area is considered primarily the result of their adaptive preference for different edaphic and possibly climatic situations and not the consequence of competitive exclusion by pollinator behavior.

Adaptive behavior, demand and preferences

This paper extends the work on endogenous change of tastes of Von Weizsäcker to the n-commodity framework and for a general adaptive behavior process. The paper examines the relation between the effect of taste changes to income and price changes. It provides sufficient conditions for stability of the underlying dynamic process, establishes uniqueness of the equilibrium demand vector and some useful relations between the long-run demand functions and the equilibrium short-run demand functions. It is also shown that the long-run demand functions can be rationalized by a utility function if and only if the short-run utility function is such that any good that experiences learning or taste change is separable from all other goods.

La problemática de la comunicación entre profesionales y usuarias de un servicio de salud sexual y reproductiva.


 
 
 Este trabajo aborda la problemática de los procesos de comunicación entre el equipo de salud y usuarias del servicio de Salud Sexual y Reproductiva del Hospital JB Iturraspe (Santa Fe-Argentina) y los Centros Comunitarios y Asistenciales dependientes de su Área Programática. Se centra en las instancias de construcción, realización e interpretación de entrevistas exploratorias, es parte inicial de una investigación cuantitativa y sus resultados permitieron elaborar preguntas de una encuesta. En este contexto, se plantean las formas de interacción entre el saber cotidiano y el saber experto en correlación con la distribución del poder, identificando las voces autorizadas y las direcciones que se trazan en el entendimiento y resolución de los problemas. Se explicita la necesidad de complementar el análisis comunicacional en el nivel micro de la relación profesional-usuario con el análisis macro de las estructuras sociales, identificando condiciones objetivas de injusticia que generan preferencias adaptativas en las personas.