Perception-based Measures Research Articles

The Effect of National Origin and Skin Color on Playing Time in the WNBA

This article uses data from the 1997–2022 seasons to investigate the role of bias in the distribution of playing time in the WNBA. We evaluate national origin, a fixed and objective measure, and improve upon past uses of subjective, perception-based measures of race by using a more objective measure of skin tone. More specifically, via a fixed-effect estimation of 2,949 WNBA player-year combinations we find no evidence that the national origin of either players or coaches is related to the provision of playing time. Similarly, skin tone of players or coaches ( n = 893), either alone or in combination with national origin, shows no robust significance. Evidence of national origin bias has previously been reported in professional men's basketball leagues in the U.S., Spain, and China. The WNBA may be demographically similar to the National Basketball Association, but it is culturally different and we find no evidence of employer discrimination.

Understanding corruption in India: determinants, nonlinear dynamics and policy implications

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to evaluate corruption in the context of India, spanning the period between 1988 and 2021. Additionally, it aims to provide an in-depth comprehension of the factors that drive its prevalence and to propose policy directives for addressing these underlying issues.Design/methodology/approachThe study instead of relying on perception-based measures, takes a distinct approach by formulating a corruption index derived from reported instances, thus ensuring a more objective assessment. Furthermore, we employ stochastic frontier analysis to tackle the issue of under-reporting within the corruption index based on reported cases. Subsequently, an auto regressive distributed lag (ARDL) methodology is applied to ascertain the principal drivers of corruption, encompassing both long and short factors.FindingsThis study reveals that corruption in India is notably influenced by economic growth and income inequality. Conversely, government effectiveness and globalization display a tendency to mitigate corruption. However, our rigorous analysis demonstrates that financial development does not wield a substantial influence in our study. Moreover, our inquiry uncovers a nonlinear relationship between economic growth and corruption. Additionally, we ascertain that the long run and short run impacts of corruption remain relatively stable across both models utilized in our study.Originality/valueThis study differs from previous research in the subsequent manners. Primarily, we employed an objective measure to formulate the corruption index, coupled with addressing the underreporting issues via stochastic frontier analysis. Moreover, this study pioneers the identification of a non-linear relationship between corruption and economic growth within the Indian context, a facet unexplored in previous investigations.

Deontological and Consequentialist Ethics and Attitudes Towards Corruption: A Survey Data Analysis

Much of the empirical research on corruption for the past 45 years has focused on perception-based definitions and measurements. Citizens’ perceptions, their attitudes and (self)reported experiences of corruption have been widely studied through different perception-based measures obtained in surveys, interviews, and experiments applied to citizens in general, and experts, business leaders, politicians, or public officials. Notwithstanding the significant progress made to understand the complexity of citizens’ understandings, judgements and practices, we are still unable to decipher by what criteria they establish what is or is not corruption and what types of corruption are susceptible of being condemned/tolerated. This paper makes an innovative contribution to fill this gap. We propose a methodological design to identify and measure different perception-based definitions of corruption based on two contrasting normative perspectives: deontological and consequentialist ethics. We identified four groups: the Virtuous; the Intransigent; the Pragmatic; and the Hypocrite. Using survey data from a national sample of Portuguese citizens, we employ discriminant analysis and logistic regression models to differentiate individual profiles in terms of process- and outcome-based social definitions of corruption and explore the explanatory factors that account for these different conceptualisations and their different degree of tolerance towards corruption.

Combining survey-based and neuroscience measurements in customer acceptance of self-driving technology

In recent years, the issue of consumer acceptance of self-driving cars has come to the forefront of interest among policymakers, researchers and automotive industry experts. Anchored in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), these studies are typically based on survey data from respondents who have not used self-driving vehicles. The survey, being a perception-based measure has several limitations, such as social desirability bias, inaccuracy due to time pressure, just to name a few. In addition, the change in intention to use self-driving vehicles as a result of actual test use deserves more academic attention. To address this limitation, volunteers were invited to participate in a test drive as passengers in a self-driving vehicle, testing their acceptance of technology using an adapted version of UTAUT2 questionnaire before and after the ride. Neuroscience measurements were also performed: real-time electroencephalography (EEG) and eye-tracking were recorded during the ride. The explanatory power of our regression model was high (97%) using this combined research method. Our preliminary results suggest, that in a real-life test technology acceptance was related more to emotional experience during the ride and less to other elements of the UTAUT2 model – which challenges the results of previous methods based solely on surveys.

Understanding Corruption with Perceived Corruption: The Understudied Effect of Corruption Tolerance

Corruption diminishes the legitimacy of a government, and the extent of corruption perceived by the public reflects how transparent a government is to some extent. However, perceived corruption can vary across individuals because perceived corruption, which is a perception-based measurement of corruption, is sample-dependent and affected by culture, personal ethical standards, and specific contexts. Tolerance for corruption, which refers to an individual’s willingness to tolerate unethical behaviors, is underdeveloped and understudied in the literature. With data collected with Random Digit Dialing technique in Taipei Taiwan, we conducted a parallel analysis to validate the scales to measure tolerance for corruption and examined its effect on perceived corruption controlling for institutional trust, satisfaction with government performance, and demographical variables. This study found partial evidence that tolerance for corruption with contextually fit items has a significant negative effect on perceived corruption with the survey data from Taipei, Taiwan, holding all the other variables constant. This result indicates that the higher the tolerance for corruption, the lower the perceived corruption. However, measuring tolerance for corruption is contextual. Scales for this construct should be further explored across cultures.

Direct public funding of political parties: Between proxy measures and hard data

This article presents an original dataset of direct public funding (DPF) of political parties across 27 post-communist regimes from the outset of transition until 2020. It represents the first systematic, and detailed account of the actual level of DPF provided to parties outside established democracies in terms of geographical and temporal coverage. The dataset has a panel format and includes information on DPF per registered voter and cast ballot separately and in aggregate for more than 800 country-year observations and more than 200 election campaigns. The analysis unveils substantial cross-national and within-country variation in the level of DPF, as well as between statutory and election financing. Despite an increasing reliance of political parties on the state, no pattern exists regarding the dynamics of access and distribution rules. It also highlights the limitations and risks entailed by the extensive use of various proxies such as dichotomous indicators, composite regulatory indexes, or perception-based measures that do not capture cross-national and within-country variation either in DPF or other dimensions of political financing regime.

How useful are perception- and experienced-based measures in predicting actual food choice? Evidence from an in-store field experiment using a multi-response approach

Multi-response approaches have gained popularity in product-based research for obtaining deeper and more generalizable product insights related to product performance. Through a natural in-store field experiment, this study examined how perception-based and experience-based measures, within a multi-response approach, serve to predict actual product choice. We investigated consumers’ evaluation and acceptance of a novel biofortified orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) puree bread with a set of 141 (Treatment A: OFSP bread) and 204 (Treatment B: other bread) randomly selected bread buyers in Nairobi, Kenya. Non-parametric machine learning methods were used for partitioning and predictive purposes. They included unbiased conditional inference trees and theory-based model-based recursive partitioning. After identifying an individual specific reference product, we first examined how Just-About-Right scaling for sensory evaluation related to nutritional beliefs, liking, and economic valuation. The latter measure was based on an incentive-compatible and consequential Becker-DeGroot-Marshak approach. The results revealed structural differences in the way that the evaluation of sensory attributes are predictive of the perception-based measures. Liking evaluation was strongly predictive of actual choice, while the economic valuation was only weakly so. Notably, neither nutritional beliefs as a food quality characteristics nor any of the dimensions related to product conceptualizations by CATA counts, including that of emotions, were predicative of the actual choice. These results suggest a further need to develop and integrate measures related to circumstantially derived state of wanting to better predict actual product choice in a natural environment.

Examining commonly used perceived and objective measures of fruit and vegetable access in low-income populations and their association with consumption.

Perception-based and objective food access measures are often examined as factors influencing individuals' shopping decisions and dietary habits, but the relative influence of these two factors on behaviors needs further examination. This study sought to (a) determine if perception-based and objective measures of fruit and vegetable (F&V) access were related and (b) examine perception-based and objective access measures as predictors of F&V consumption. Participants were recruited as part of a larger intervention study from 12 sites across three urban North Carolina counties. Perception-based food access measured included self-reported perceptions of convenience, variety, and quality of F&V within a neighborhood. Food outlet density was used as the objective measure. This was derived by summing the total number of geocoded convenience stores, grocery stores, supermarkets, and supercenters located within 1 road network mile of participants' home address. Associations between perception-based and objective measures were examined using Pearson's correlations, and associations of F&V access and intake were examined using linear regression models. Pearson correlations between perception-based and objective measures revealed that F&V variety was associated with supermarkets. Regression results show that perception-based barriers to F&V access were not significantly associated with intake, but supercenter density within 1 mile was significantly associated with decreased F&V intake. Common measures of perception-based and objective measures of food access may not be the best predictor of F&V intake. Understanding the relationships of these factors for lower-income populations can offer guidance for future policies and programs.

The Effects of Power Outages on the Performance of Manufacturing Firms in the MENA Region

AbstractPower supply in developing countries is often characterized by unreliability and inefficiency, resulting in disruption costs for operating firms. The extents of power outages in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are more significant compared to other geo-economic regions. This paper examines the effects of power outages on the performance of manufacturing firms in the MENA region using a firm-level dataset derived from the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys (WBES) database. Firm performance is represented by sales, employment, and productivity growth rates. The extents of power outages are depicted by objective measures characterizing durations and frequencies of power outages, and by perception-based measures reflecting firms’ perceived severity of power outages. The results emphasize the adverse consequences of power outages for the performance of manufacturing firms in the MENA region. They also suggest that different patterns of power outages have varying implications for firm performance, and that the effects of power outages exhibit variations with firm size.

Problem Severity, Collaborative Stage, and Partner Selection in US Cities

Abstract Prior research identifies problem severity as an important antecedent of collaboration. Yet, little is known about how problem severity shapes collaborative behavior of public organizations beyond the initial decision to engage in such action. This study adds to the theory of collaboration by linking problem severity to the stage of collaborative activity and partner selection. We empirically test the validity of these linkages in the context of US local governments and examine how they respond to a wicked public problem—sea-level rise. The analysis draws on 2017 survey data from 140 vulnerable municipalities across 20 states. We find that cities respond to higher risk by increasing their collaborative effort and seeking partners across sectors, with preference for those less similar to them. Our results remain robust to three objective measures of problem severity, as well as to a perception-based measure. A closer examination of the interplay between the effect of real and perceived threat underscores the need to account for the views of local decision makers.

Oral health–related quality of life and unmet dental needs among women living with HIV

BackgroundOral health–related quality of life (OHRQoL) is a multidimensional, perception-based measure of how oral health affects social and physical functioning and self-image. OHRQoL is important for assessing women living with HIV (WLWH) who may have unmet dental needs and experience disparities that impact dental care accessibility. MethodsIn 2016, the authors conducted an assessment of OHRQoL among a national sample of 1,526 WLWH in the Women’s Interagency HIV Study using the Oral Health Impact Profile instrument, which assesses the frequency of 14 oral health impact items. OHRQoL was measured using multivariable linear regression with a negative binomial distribution to assess the association between report of a recent unmet dental need and OHRQoL. Results“Fair or poor” oral health condition was reported by 37.8% (n = 576) of WLWH. Multivariable linear regression showed that unmet dental needs had the strongest positive association with poor OHRQoL (difference in Oral Health Impact Profile mean, 2.675; P < .001) compared with not having unmet needs. The frequency of dental care utilization was not associated with higher OHRQoL. Older age, fair or poor dental condition, smoking, symptoms of anxiety and loneliness, and poor OHRQoL were also associated with worse OHRQoL. ConclusionSelf-perceived impact of oral health on social and physical function and self-image, as measured by OHRQoL, may be an easily assessable but underrecognized aspect of OHRQoL, particularly among women aging with HIV. Practical ImplicationsDentists should implement OHRQoL assessments in their management of the care of patients with HIV to identify those who do have significant oral health impacts.

Influence of Health Literacy on Effects of Patient Rating Websites: Survey Study Using a Hypothetical Situation and Fictitious Doctors.

BackgroundPhysician rating websites (PRWs) are a device people use actively and passively, although their objective capabilities are insufficient when it comes to judging the medical performance and qualification of physicians. PRWs are an innovation born of the potential of the Internet and boosted very much by the longstanding policy of improving and encouraging patient participation in medical decision-making. A mismatch is feared between patient motivations to participate and their capabilities of doing so well. Awareness of such a mismatch might contribute to some skepticism of patient-written physician reviews on PRWs.ObjectiveWe intend to test whether health literacy is able to dampen the effects that a patient-written review of a physician’s performance might have on physician choice.MethodsAn experiment was conducted within a survey interview. Participants were put into a fictitious decision situation in which they had to choose between two physicians on the basis of their profiles on a PRW. One of the physician profiles contained the experimental stimulus in the form of a friendly and a critical written review. The dependent variable was physician choice. An attitude differential, trust differential, and two measures of health literacy, the newest vital sign as an example of a performance-based measure and eHealth Literacy Scale as an example of a perception-based measure, were tested for roles as intermediary variables. Analysis traced the influence of the review tendency on the dependent variables and a possible moderating effect of health literacy on these influences.ResultsReviews of a physician’s competence and medical skill affected participant choice of a physician. High health literacy dampened these effects only in the case of the perception-based measure and only for the negative review. Correspondingly, the effect of the review tendency appeared to be stronger for the positive review. Attitudes and trust only affected physician choice when included as covariants, considerably increasing the variance explained by regression models.ConclusionsFindings sustain physician worries that even one negative PRW review can affect patient choice and damage doctors’ reputations. Hopes that health literacy might raise awareness of the poor basis of physician reviews and ratings given by patients have some foundation.

Local Public Corruption and Bank Lending Activity in the United States

Using a conviction-based measure, we find that local (state-level) public corruption exerts a negative effect on the lending activity of US banks. Our baseline estimations show that the difference in public corruption between, for example, Alabama, where corruption is high, and Minnesota, where corruption is low, implies that banks headquartered in the former state grant 0.55% less credit (or $3.52 million for the average bank) ceteris paribus. Using proxies for relationship lending and monitoring, we also find that these bank characteristics weaken the negative effect of public corruption on lending. These results are robust to tests that address endogeneity, to the use of perception-based measures of corruption, and after controlling for credit demand conditions. In further analysis, we show that these effects are more evident for smaller banks and banks operating in a single state. These findings provide evidence that public corruption could facilitate information asymmetry in the lending market and, thus, could hinder local development by reducing bank credit.

Measuring Corruption and Comparison of Corruption Indices - Focused on CPI, CCI and IPI -

부패지수 혹은 부패통제 지수는 부패인식 제고나 반부패 정책 수립 등 다양한 목적을 위하여 사용된다. 이런 목적을 달성하기 위하여 부패지수의 속성이나 구성에 대해서 정확한 이해가 필요하다. 이 논문에서 CCI, CPI, IPI 부패지수의 작성원리와 속성을 비교 검토하여 각 지표의 장단점을 알아보았다. 모든 부패지수가 다수의 개별 자료나 지수를 활용하여 작성된 복합지수이고 개별 자료들은 인식지수를 포함하고 있다. 각 지수는 개별자료의 선택, 자료의 표준화, 합산 그리고 새로운 지수의 생성 과정을 거쳐서 만들어지는데 통계적으로 오차를 줄이기 위해서 노력하고 있지만, 지수 작성과정에서 다양한 편의(bias)가 존재한다. 좋은 부패지수를 만들기 위해서는 타당성 있고 신뢰할만한 개별자료를 확보하는 것이 중요하다. 부패 현상이나 거버넌스 자체가 측정이 어렵기 때문에 경험자료든 인식자료든 모두 고유한 편의를 가진다. 100개 이상의 국가를 대상으로 발표되는 부패지수는 모든 나라가 동일한 개별자료를 사용하는 것이 아니기 때문에도 편의가 발생한다. 기초자료의 유사성을 고려하면 경제발전의 정도가 비슷한 국가 사이의 부패지수 비교는 상당히 타당도가 높고 한 국가의 부패지수 변화 역시 일관성을 갖추고 있는 것으로 판단된다. 그러나 경제발전의 정도 다른 국가의 부패지수를 비교하는 것은 주의가 필요하다.The purpose of this study is to investigate the property of various corruption measures such as the corruption perception index(CPI) of Transparency International, the control of corruption index(CCI) of the World Bank and the index of public integrity(IPI) of The European Research Centre for Anti-Corruption and State-Building to better understand the meaning of corruption measure indexes. All three corruption indices are built following four steps:selection of source data, rescaling source data, aggregating the rescaled data and then reporting a measure for uncertainty. Although each organization is cautious to minimize errors and biases related to the steps. there exist several biases. To construct a good corruption index, a good quality resource data should be secured first. Due to the difficulties of measuring corruption or governance, all corruption measures exhibit some biases regardless of experience-based or perception-based measures. Because all corruption indexes do not use the same data source, we should be cautious interpreting the corruption index of a country. It is safe to compare indices of countries when the countries are in similar economic development level.

Toward Optimum Quantification of Pathology-Induced Noises: An Investigation of Information Missed by Human Auditory System

Clinical diagnosis of voice disorder and evaluation of therapy outcome heavily rely on accurate quantification of voice quality, which is closely tied to the physiology and function of the laryngeal mechanism. Considering the evaluation methodology of the voice, two main categories of auditory-perceptual assessment and acoustic analysis can be identified. This article presents a new approach for acoustic analysis of voice quality, which brings several advantages to the field. The proposed approach is non-parametric in the sense that it does not require the estimation of the fundamental frequency or spectral response of the vocal tract. This reduces the computational complexity of the measurement and reduces the possible errors due to inaccurate estimation of those parameters. Additionally, the method does not make any assumption about the phonetic context and hence has the potential to be applied to connected speech. The proposed method benefits from the multiresolution structure of the wavelet analysis for estimating the noisy component of a voice in the spectro-temporal domain. The informativeness of the estimated noise for voice quality distinction is examined based on different noise-quantification approaches. It is shown that deviation from the model of the human auditory system (HAS) leads to performance improvement. Through several analyses, it is argued that using models of HAS for quantification of the noise leads to significant loss of information relevant to voice quality. Findings from this article suggest that perception-based measures of voice quality are highly restricted in capturing important aspects of acoustic that could assist with voice quality distinctions. This characteristic is inherent to HAS and cannot be alleviated, highlighting a significant limitation of perception-based measures.

Crazy Like a Fox? Are Leaders with Reputations for Madness More Successful at International Coercion?

AbstractAccording to the ‘Madman Theory’ promoted by Richard Nixon and early rationalist scholars, being viewed as mentally unstable can help a leader coerce foreign adversaries. This article offers the first large-N test of this theory. The author introduces an original perception-based measure of leaders' reputations for madness, coded based on news reports, and analyzes its effect on both general deterrence and crisis bargaining. The study also tests several hypotheses about the conditions under which perceived madness is expected to be more or less helpful. The author finds that perceived madness is harmful to general deterrence and is sometimes also harmful in crisis bargaining, but may be helpful in crisis bargaining under certain conditions. The analysis suggests that the harmful effect of perceived madness results from a commitment problem.

Measuring health literacy: performance-based versus perception-based measures

Abstract Background Many performance-based or perception-based measurement tools of health literacy (HL) have been developed. The aim of this study is to compare the results of performance-based versus perception-based measures of HL in a population-based sample in Florence (Italy). Methods 223 subjects were interviewed. To measure HL, HLS-EU-Q16 (perception-based measure of general HL) and NVS (performance-based measure of functional HL) were used. Sociodemographic characteristics were collected. Results The majority of the subjects had high school (36%) or university (44%) degree and gets to the end of the month quite or very easily with financial resources available (69%). Considering age classes, 22% was 18-45, 26% 46-55, 34% 56-65, 18% 66-70 year-old. According to HLS-EU-Q16, 11.8% had inadequate, 55.5% problematic and 33% sufficient HL; considering NVS, 11.7% had high likelihood of limited HL, 28.7% possibility of limited HL, 59.6% adequate HL. The percentage of people with low HL was higher for HLS-EU-Q16 than for NVS in each category of age class, educational level, and financial resources. For both measures, the percentage of people with low HL increased with age, becoming more similar for older people: for HLS-EU-Q16, from 59.2% for 18-45 to 78.4% for &amp;gt;65 years old; for NVS, from 20% for 18-45 to 67.5% for &amp;gt;65 years old. Similar results were observed for educational level and financial resources: for both tests, the percentage of people with low HL increased with the decreasing of educational level or financial resources; for the worst situations (less than high school diploma or having not enough financial resources), the percentage of people with low HL become similar comparing the two tests. Conclusions Perception-based measure of general HL and performance-based measure of functional HL investigate different aspects, but in the worst situations (older people, low educational level and not enough financial resources) they tend to produce the same result. Key messages Perception-based measure of general HL and performance-based measure of functional HL investigate different aspects. In the worst situations (older people, low educational level and not enough financial resources) they tend to produce the same result.

Age-friendly environments and psychosocial wellbeing: a study of older urban residents in Ireland

ABSRACT Objective This article aims to estimate the association between age-friendly urban environments and psychosocial wellbeing in adults aged 55+ living in four Irish cities. Method Data is from the Healthy and Positive Ageing Initiative ‘Age-friendly Cities and Counties Survey’ from four cities; Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Galway (n = 2,094). The Age-friendly Urban Index (AFUI), a perception-based measure of safety, access to services, and walkability, is used to measure urban environment quality on a scale of 35 (least favourable) to 105 (most favourable). Wellbeing was estimated using the following composite measures: quality of life (comprising hedonic (pleasure) and eudaimonic (control, autonomy, self-realisation) wellbeing); affective (depressive mood); and social (loneliness). Multivariate regression analyses (negative binomial and Poisson regression) were used to investigate the association between the AFUI and each wellbeing indicator. Models were fully adjusted for known demographic (age, gender, household structure, marital status), socio-economic (material deprivation, employment/occupation, education), social (social engagement, community activities) and health (self-rated health, mobility limitations) correlates of psychosocial wellbeing. Results Older people living in cities with higher AFUI score were more likely to report higher quality of life overall, and higher hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing. These adults also had lower depressive mood scores and reported lower loneliness levels. Results remain significant in the fully adjusted model. Limitations Causal conclusions cannot be made because of cross-sectional data. Conclusion This study provides evidence of the relationship between the age-friendliness (safety, services, and walkability) of urban environments and multiple aspects of psychosocial wellbeing for older adults in Ireland.

When bribery helps the poor

The debate about the effect of corruption on income distribution suffers from a number of problems. The main issues are the use of perception-based measures of corruption, which implicitly favours one side of the debate, and a too narrow conception of agency involved in corruption. By relying on direct and grained evidence of bribery in 106 industrialised and industrialising states, and by appreciating the role of agency on the part of bribers, this article finds support for an emerging view that the effect of corruption on inequality is conditional. Under poor institutional conditions, entrepreneurial-related bribery is associated with an increase in the relative income share of the poorest 40%, mitigating disposable income inequality. The results are robust to the use of different income-distribution measures and data sources, as well as different specifications. While wide-spread bribery and corruption in general may be detrimental to longer term socio-economic progress, it is important not to ignore the incentives and constraints that lead people to use bribery as a means of survival.

Local Decentralization and the Quality of Public Services in Europe

Most work studying the impact of fiscal decentralization on the provision of public services has measured the latter by way of quantitative output indicators (for example, years of schooling or mortality rates) and the former based on aggregate decentralization indicators reflecting sub-central government spending or revenue as a percentage of total spending or revenue. In this article, we reconsider the link between fiscal decentralization and public service provision based on perception-based measures of the quality of public services as well as decentralization measures that disaggregate spending according to expenditure functions. Specifically, we examine the impact of decentralizing spending in the areas of education, health and social protection down to local (municipal) governments, on perceptions concerning the quality of public services, across a panel of 30 European countries over the period 1996–2015. We find that decentralizing education and social protection spending improves the perceived quality of public services while decentralizing health expenditure undermines quality. Our empirical results are robust to the introduction of a range of potentially important covariates including measures that reflect on the degree of autonomy enjoyed by local authorities.