This thesis is comprised of three distinct chapters, each of which is concerned in some way with the measurement of poverty. The first chapter provides social preference conditions which are both necessary and sufficient for a poverty line to arise endogenously. In so doing, it turns out that the apparently independent 'identification' and 'aggregation' problems in poverty measurement are subtly intertwined. Necessary and sufficient conditions are provided for the existence of both relative and absolute poverty lines. In each case, one of the conditions is a familiar weak monotonicity property. The other conditions are simple consistency requirements.In the second chapter, we propose classes of intertemporal poverty measures which take into account both the debilitating impact of prolonged spells in poverty and the mitigating effect of periods of affluence on subsequent poverty. The weight assigned to the level of poverty in each time period depends on the length of the preceding spell of poverty or of non-poverty. The proposed classes of intertemporal poverty measures are quite general and allow for a range of possible judgements as to the overall impact on a poor period of preceding spells of poverty or affluence. We discuss the properties of the proposed classes of measures and axiomatically characterize them.The third chapter is an empirical application of the intertemporal poverty measures proposed in the second chapter. The new measures, together with an existing intertemporal poverty measure from the literature, are used to analyse intertemporal poverty in Great Britain during the period 1991-2005, using data from the British Household Panel Survey. Previous studies on poverty using this data-set have employed static measures of poverty. We illustrate how the use of intertemporal poverty measures makes it possible to analyse aspects of poverty which cannot be captured by static, annual, measures of poverty. We then model the determinants of intertemporal poverty, conditional upon being poor, using a Heckman two-step selection model.

Den här studien undersöker vad som påverkar attityder hos unga gällande hörselnedsättningar relaterade till fritidsbuller såsom ett regelbunden användning av hörlurar. För att svara på dessa frågor genomfördes en onlinebaserad enkät där deltagarna fick skatta sin koppling till sitt framtida jag på en 100-gradig skala, läsa information om hörselnedsättningar orsakade av fritidsbuller i punktform respektive i formen av ett scenario och skatta 19 frågor på en femgradig skala från “håller inte alls med” till “håller helt med”. Studien visade inga signifikanta resultat. I rapporten diskuteras eventuella orsaker till dessa icke signifikanta resultat utifrån ett metodiskt perspektiv, där slutsatsen blir att vidare forskning bör fokusera främst på hur deltagarnas koppling till sitt framtida jag kan stärkas. / This study examines what influences young people's attitudes towards hearing loss related to leisure noise such as regular use of headphones. To answer these questions, an online-based survey was conducted where participants were asked to estimate their connection to their future self on a 100-point scale, read information about hearing impairments caused by leisure noise in bullet points or in the form of a scenario and rate 19 questions on a five-point scale from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree". The study showed no significant results. The report discusses possible reasons for these non-significant results from a methodological perspective, with the conclusion that further research should focus primarily on how to strengthen the connection for the participants' connection to their future selves.

Le domaine de la théorie de la decision a été très actif depuis von Neumann Morgenstern 1943. De nouveaux modèles de décision ont révolutionné la manière avec laquelle on peut analyser nos actions et nos décisions. Cependant, le paradoxe de Allais en 1953 a obligé les théoriciens à clarifier l’objectif de leurs modèles. Alors de nombreux auteurs ont mis en avant le but normatif du modèle utilité espérée (les choix tel que nous devrions les faire, potentiellement meilleurs) et ont délaissé l’objectif descriptif (les choix réels, potentiellement biaisés).Cette évolution a permis a la discipline de définir de claire et solides méthodes de validation empirique de son approche descriptive. Cependant à l’inverse, la théorie de la decision normatif peine toujours à déterminer une méthodologie objective et constructive afin de trancher ses débats internes au sujet de la rationalité des modèles de théorie de la décision. Fournir une telle méthodologie est l’objectif principal de cette thèse. / Decision Theory has been a very dynamic field since von Neumann and Morgenstern 1943. New decision models have opened new ways to think about our actions and every day decisions.Allais’ Paradox in 1953 forced decision theorists to be clearer about the intents their models and several authors claimed that expected utility solely has a normative intent (choices that we should make, potentially better) and not a descriptive one (choices as we make them, potentially flawed).It also allowed to define better methods of validation for a descriptive point of view. Best practices in descriptive decision theory have emerged and we have now clear-cut and vetted methods of justifying the use of a given model of decision theory for a descriptive aim.However for normative decision theory that intents to help us make better choices, we do not have a clear cut way to determine and "prove" that a given model is the right one. This thesis provides an empirical design that provides such a methodology.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / It is well documented that adolescent substance use is associated with deficits in brain function and behavior. However, possible deficits that predate substance use initiation remain poorly characterized in preadolescents at-risk for developing substance use disorder (SUD). To characterize potential brain and behavioral differences that predate substance use, substance naïve preadolescents, ages 11–12, were recruited into three groups to complete functional magnetic resonance imaging delay discounting: (1) High-risk youth (n=35) with a family history of SUD and externalizing psychiatric disorders, (2) psychiatric controls (n=35) with no family history of SUD, but equivalent externalizing psychiatric disorders as high-risk youth, and (3) healthy controls (n=29) with no family history of SUD and minimal psychopathology. While no behavioral differences between groups were identified, there were group differences in posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) function during decision making. Specifically, the high-risk group showed stronger deactivation of the PCC than healthy controls. These results suggest that high-risk preadolescents may need to suppress activity of key nodes of the default mode network (a task negative network) to a greater extent to properly allocate attention to the task.

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Prior research suggests that adolescents are drawn to the temptations of immediate rewards to a greater degree than adults, particularly when making decisions in the company of their peers. Dual-systems models of adolescent decision making posit that this immediate reward bias derives from a developmentally normative imbalance in the neural dynamics characterizing the adolescent brain. At a time when the brain's "top-down" cognitive control system is still developing the processing efficiency and functional integration thought to support mature self-regulation in adulthood, changes in "bottom-up" dopaminergic functioning imbue adolescents with heightened sensitivity to environmentally salient rewards. The resulting bias toward under-controlled, reward-driven behavior may be further accentuated by the presence of peers, who are hypothesized to prime incentive processing circuitry to respond to opportunities for immediate rewards. The present study utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine age- and context-related differences between adolescents and adults in neural activity and choice behavior corresponding to the comparative evaluation of sooner-smaller and larger-later rewards in an intertemporal choice task. Half of the participants were scanned in a standard "alone" condition, and half were scanned in a "peer" condition, wherein two same-sex, same-age peers informed the participant that they would be observing task performance from the scanner control room. Although behavioral results did not support the hypothesis that peer presence would accentuate adolescents' bias toward immediate rewards, they confirm that, even when making decisions alone, adolescents are more inclined than adults to sacrifice the added value of a larger future reward in order to receive a smaller reward immediately. Furthermore, fMRI results demonstrate at least three important differences between adolescents and adults in neural activity corresponding to the comparative evaluation of rewards. First, adolescents evince stronger activation than adults in regions implicated in incentive processing (including bilateral caudate), consistent with a bias toward reward-driven behavior. Second, adolescents show stronger functional connectivity between a region in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) whose activity is correlated with impulsive choice and a region in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) shown by prior research to represent the value of decision options. This stronger OFC-vmPFC connectivity among adolescents is consistent with greater affective (OFC) influence on choice valuation and behavior (vmPFC). Finally, adolescents show stronger deactivation of regions implicated in cognitive control (including anterior cingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) when evaluating rewards with relatively longer delays, consistent with a failure to carefully consider the value of future rewards. Together, results suggest that neurodevelopmental theories of adolescent decision making would be improved by more explicit modeling of age differences in the neural processes underlying evaluation of the temporal properties of rewards. / Psychology

Every day to we make decisions that require us to reconcile our desire to be satisfied immediately with our desire to improve upon our current situation, which often requires waiting. People tend to devalue future rewards as a function of the time they must wait receive them, a phenomenon known as a delay discounting. Nearly all species exhibit delay discounting, yet there is a striking level of inter-individual variability in discounting severity. In humans, discounting rate predicts a wide array of outcomes such as academic achievement, drug addiction, salary, and obesity. Such correlational relationships have led some to argue that discounting is a stable trait. Contrary to this perspective, several studies have shown that discounting rates may gradually decrease with age. There is also evidence that contextual factors can more immediately alter an individual's discounting rate. One such factor is how information is presented, or "framed". The way in which options are framed-even if they are logically equivalent-can influence choice. Framing a choice as a loss often leads to avoidance that option, i.e. to loss aversion. Delay discounting and susceptibility to loss framing have thus far only been studied in isolation, yet in day to day life we regularly must consider both temporal and loss information, particularly as we become older. This study seeks to the bridge delay discounting, framing, and normative aging literatures to examine (1) whether reframing choices can reduce delay discounting; (2) what factors drive individual differences in discounting and framing susceptibility; (3) to what extent these phenomena interact with age; and (4) a potential application of these findings in the context of Social Security claiming. / Psychology

Mobile electronic devices such as smartphones are playing an increasingly pervasive role in our daily activities. A growing body of literature is beginning to investigate how mobile technology habits might relate to individual differences in cognitive traits. The present study is an investigation into how individual differences in intertemporal preference, impulse control, and reward sensitivity, are predictive of the degree to which people engage with their smartphones, in two separate experiments. Experiment 1 utilized behavioral and self-reported measures for each of the aforementioned cognitive traits to examine their relationships with Mobile Technology Engagement (MTE) as defined in Wilmer & Chein (2016). The results replicated earlier work demonstrating that mobile technology engagement is positively correlated with a tendency to discount delayed rewards. A positive relationship was also observed between MTE and reward sensitivity. In an attempt to investigate the neural origins of the relationship observed in Experiment 1, Experiment 2 examined the association between mobile technology usage and white matter connectivity from the ventral striatum (vSTR) to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), pathways that have been previously implicated as biological markers for individual differences in intertemporal preference. Regression analyses revealed that both pathways predicted delay discounting performance, but only vSTR-vmPFC predicted mobile technology engagement. Taken together, the results of these two experiments provide important foundational evidence for both neural and cognitive factors that predict how individuals engage with mobile technology. / Psychology

Los objetivos generales de la investigación consisten en indagar acerca de la evolución del área urbana de Mar del Plata a partir de los mapas sociales modelizados para el período 1991-2010 con el fin de descubrir la dinámica socio-territorial que afecta a la ciudad, examinar las tendencias de la estructuración espacial característica del período en su vinculación con los procesos de poblamiento y producción del espacio urbano para reconocer las transformaciones en la configuración de la ciudad en el contexto de los modelos de desarrollo implementados en la última década del siglo XX y primera del siglo XXI, y contribuir al debate sobre los modelos urbanos latinoamericanos desde el análisis particular de una localidad mediana por el tamaño de su población y relativamente joven por su trayectoria histórica. El abordaje de este trozo de la realidad se realiza a partir de la teoría de los sistemas complejos, combinando dos miradas teóricas en el marco de la ciencia geográfica: el enfoque cuantitativo para la elaboración de los modelos urbanos en su forma lógica-matemática y el enfoque radical-crítico que permite la interpretación fundamentada en los procesos desestructurantes que interrumpen la estabilidad dada en determinados momentos. Esta composición de conocimientos colabora en la comprensión de la diferenciación interna de la ciudad y su evolución histórica reciente. La metodología de naturaleza cuantitativa contempla la aplicación de las técnicas de análisis multivariado, de segregación y de autocorrelación espacial, sobre las bases de datos de los censos nacionales de población, hogares y vivienda, hasta la escala geográfica de los radios censales. La metodología que asume la mirada crítica se introduce en algunos de los procesos políticos, económicos, sociales y culturales que han posibilitado la construcción de la forma urbana actual y sus tendencias recientes, al considerar los eventos que construyen las situaciones geográficas, su demarcación en períodos apropiados, la incidencia de la pobreza, la desocupación, la distribución de los ingresos y los patrones de uso del suelo. Los hallazgos confirman que la estructura socio-espacial interna de la ciudad de Mar del Plata se muestra compleja en atención a sus dimensiones demográficas, sociales y económicas. Las configuraciones del espacio urbano observadas a partir de los mapas sociales y en un lapso de veinte años han demostrado que persisten y hasta se acrecientan las desigualdades entre los hogares, los habitantes y los espacios de vida. En cuanto a la caracterización del Mapa Social de Mar del Plata en función de los modelos desarrollados en investigaciones urbano-regionales con origen en países anglosajones y sus reconsideraciones en los países latinoamericanos, se logran reconocer varias formas diseñadas aunque con ciertas especificidades locales. / The overall objectives of this research is to inquire about the evolution of the urban area of Mar del Plata from the modeled social maps for the period 1991-2010, in order to discover the socio-territorial dynamics affecting the city, to examine trends in the spatial structure characteristic of the period, in their relationship with the processes of settlement and production of urban space, to recognize the changes in the configuration of the city in the context of the development models implemented in the last decade of the twentieth century and first of the XXI century, and to contribute to the debate on Latin American urban models from the particular analysis of a medium sized town, because of the number of its inhabitants and by its relatively short historical trajectory. Dealing with this piece of reality is performed from the theory of complex systems, combining two theoretical perspectives within the framework of geography: the quantitative approach, for the development of urban models, in its logical-mathematical form, and the radical-critical approach that allows interpretation based on the destructuring processes that disrupt the stability given at certain times. This configuration of knowledge contributes to the understanding of the internal differentiation of the city and its recent historical evolution. The quantitative tendency methodology includes applying multivariate analysis techniques, segregation and spatial autocorrelation, on the basis of data from national censuses of population, households and housing, up to the geographic scale of census radios. This methodology, which assumes a critical view, is inserted into some of the political, economic, social and cultural processes that enabled the construction of the current urban form and its recent trends, considering the events that build geographical locations, its demarcation in appropriate periods, the incidence of poverty, unemployment, income distribution and patterns of land use. Findings confirm that the internal socio-spatial structure of the city of Mar del Plata denotes complexity when paying attention to its demographic, social and economic dimensions. Configurations of urban space observed from social mapping and within a twenty-year scope have shown that inequalities persist and are even enhanced among households, residents and living spaces. As for the characterization of the Social Map of Mar del Plata based on models developed in urban-regional research originated in Anglo-Saxon countries and its considerations in Latin American countries, various designed forms are identified, though with certain local features.