1.1 MYSTIFICATION = Distortions of perceptions of reality that mask/obscure that reality. Ideological practices produce human beings as social subjects by transforming “lived experiences” into subjectivity. Mystification concerns the ways in which cognitive understandings of “what exists” are formed out of our lived experiences, formed in such a way that they distort and mask the way the social...

We consider the Sakaguchi functions which are starlike with respect to symmetrical points in the open unit disk U and extend it to class SH(α, t) concerning with Sakaguchi-type complex-valued harmonic univalent functions in U. A sufficient coefficient condition and a necessary and sufficient convolution characterization for such harmonic functions are determined. In addition, by using the coeff...

Inherited wealth creates a second distinguishing characteristic of individuals, in addition to earning abilities. We incorporate this fact into a model of optimal labor income taxation, with bequests motivated by joy of giving. We …nd that taxes on bequests or on inheritances allow further redistribution, if in the parent generation initial wealth and earning abilities are positively related. O...

Numerous studies show that, together with the United States, Switzerland presents the lowest average levels of turnout among established democracies. At the same time, Swiss voters are among those most frequently called to the polls, owing to the widespread possibilities for direct democracy on all three levels of the federal state. Not surprisingly, it is also in Switzerland that new means of ...

This paper studies the design of pension schemes in a society where fertility is endogenous and parents differ in their ability to raise children. In a world with perfect information, a pay-as-you-go social security system is characterized by equal pensions for all but different contributions which may or may not increase with the number of children. Additionally, fertility must be subsidized a...

We assessed the forgetting of friends and its effects on measuring personal and social network characteristics and properties. All 217 residents of a university residence hall first recalled as many of their friends in the hall as they could. Then, on a complete list of hall residents, residents indicated other friends they forgot to recall. On average, residents forgot 20% of their friends. Re...

We determine the quality of randomized social choice mechanisms in a setting in which the agents have metric preferences: every agent has a cost for each alternative, and these costs form a metric. We assume that these costs are unknown to the mechanisms (and possibly even to the agents themselves), which means we cannot simply select the optimal alternative, i.e. the alternative that minimizes...

Social Security and Taxation of Labour Subject to Subsidiarity and Freedom of Movement In Europe, the competence for social security and the right to levy income tax lie with the country of employment in cross-border matters. This has two disadvantages. First, the Employment Principle distorts active persons' choice of place of work. Second, the employment-based regulation of state competencies...

Inaccuracy of sociometric reports poses a serious challenge to social network analysis. Nevertheless, researchers continue to draw potentially misleading conclusions from flawed data. We consider two particular types of systematic error in measurement of network size: individuals over/underreporting others (expansiveness bias), and individuals being over/underreported by others (attractiveness ...