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Three Essays on the Risk-taking Behaviour of Individuals
No full textThis thesis focuses on the impact of three behavioural biases on individuals’ risk-taking behaviours, namely the disposition effect, partisan bias and ambiguity aversion. The first and third empirical chapters offer crucial extensions to the behavioural finance literature by employing a proprietary dataset of 1.6 million individual investors spanning the period from January 2007 and July 2009. The second empirical chapter has important policy implications for COVID-19 mitigation during a public health crisis.
The first empirical chapter examines whether individual investors’ early-life exposure to the Great Chinese Famine (GCF) causes them to be more loss averse. Several findings emerge. First, this chapter demonstrates that individuals with early-life GCF exposure exhibit a higher degree of loss aversion than those without such exposure. Second, early-life GCF exposure significantly impacts individuals’ loss aversion during adverse market conditions. Finally, this chapter finds that the degree of early-life GCF exposure (severe/less severe) and not just the GCF exposure causes individuals to be more loss averse when facing future adversity.
In the second empirical chapter, this thesis examines whether, and to what extent, the Presidential COVID-19 sentiment (PCS), constructed based on former President Trump’s tweets, influenced the public’s risk perception of COVID-19. This chapter finds that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, PCS was negatively associated with social distancing behaviours in Republican counties owing to confirmation bias yet was positively associated with social distancing behaviours in Democratic counties due to aberration bias. This chapter supports the view that individuals’ risk perception is influenced by the information received from politicians through social media, with the impact exhibiting variations with respect to their positions on the political spectrum.
In addition, the final empirical chapter examines whether market ambiguity affects the risk-taking behaviours of investors and shows how this effect takes shape. This empirical evidence reveals that individuals tend to trade more and trade out of risky securities when market ambiguity increases. Increasing ambiguity leads to a decrease in the share of risky assets within individual investors’ portfolios. More specifically, individual investors tend to show aversion to ambiguity for gains and love to ambiguity for losses
Preserving and Redeeming the Penultimate Through Healthcare: A Theological Foundation as visualised through the dual lens of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Albert Schweitzer.
No full textThe Church in England has withdrawn from healthcare in a way that it has not withdrawn from education. This raises the question as to whether there are theological reasons why healthcare should be seen as an important part of the mission of the Church. In answering this question, I have examined the relationship between the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the theology and praxis of Albert Schweitzer and assessed how that relationship might play into the twenty-first century debate on the role of the Church and healthcare, particularly in terms of the preservation and redemption of the penultimate; the penultimate being our present reality. In Bonhoeffer’s words, it is ‘all that precedes the ultimate’ and is where ‘Jesus lets human reality exist’. Central to the work of both Bonhoeffer and Schweitzer are shared questions regarding the value of Christianity to the modern world and an emphasis on the practical application of the tenets of Christianity to improve the life of humankind. This shared philosophy links Schweitzer’s work with Bonhoeffer’s focus on the importance of redeeming the penultimate, the combination having a natural affinity with the work and raison d’étre of healthcare and thereby making the work of Schweitzer and Bonhoeffer pertinent today. Furthermore, if ‘being human’ is to be revered amidst questions around artificial intelligence, transhumanism and the posthuman, the ethical work of Bonhoeffer and Schweitzer assumes increased importance. Through the dual lens of their work, this research reveals the possibility of re-envisioning the praxis of healthcare as theologically central to the mission of the Church
MEASURING CHANGE IN MALTESE EDUCATION: AN IMPACT EVALUATION OF LARGE-SCALE POLICY INTRODUCTION ON LEARNING OUTCOMES AND THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION.
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This research investigated the impact on the quality of education across the Maltese Islands of two broad-scale educational policy changes — the National Minimum Curriculum (1999) and For All Children to Succeed (2004). It did so by investigating change in student outcomes on a set of five benchmark tests held across the same period as the policy introductions.
The initial stages considered a quality education framework (input – process – output – context) to underpin the key processes of the study and help define the educational functions being investigated. The main part of the analysis then established a timescale based on the NMC and FACTS polices before analysing changes in examination constructs and forms. Once the inputs, processes and contexts were structured, the research proceeded to investigate outputs using Junior Lyceum Entrance Examinations results data. The overlaying of time series analysis for each of these analytical processes from before and after the policy introductions allowed the determination of impact points and direction of effect.
The research indicates that the general effect of the two policies had an indirect positive influence on student outcomes. More specifically, there was/were:
i. an overall rate of improvement in student achievement scores before and after the introduction of the NMC and FACTS policies.
ii. discrepancies between application of conjunctive criteria (used by the EAU) and a parallel analysis of the data using compensatory criteria suggest that the criteria applied to the Junior Lyceum Examinations would have skewed signs of progress in teaching and learning at classroom level.
iii. an increase in the rate of change of achievement when comparing the decade before and after the introduction of the NMC. The main changes took place at the beginning and end of the decade with the period 2001 – 2008, showing very slight change when using the compensatory data sets.
iv. English, and mathematics, had a disproportionately higher impact on student success rates that made the inclusion of the other three exams practically irrelevant.
v. The Junior Lyceum Examination set as a whole lacked independent objectivity and as such could not be considered an effective benchmarking tool.
The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the reforms on student learning, develop tools for monitoring change outcomes and identifying key factors driving the change. By analysing changes in student achievement and identifying the contributing factors, the study also sought to provide insights for future policy decisions and educational reforms
Domestic Abuse in England and Wales: A Critique of Emerging Law and the Role of Criminal Justice
Get PDFAlthough Domestic Abuse law has been increasingly prevalent as an issue on the social and political radar, the legal landscape that incrementally composes the law on domestic abuse requires urgent reformulation. The criminal law on domestic abuse remains piecemeal and inadequate, despite recent developments in the modern understanding of domestic abuse, and legal developments that appear to look more to the civil law to help protect victim-survivors. There is an absence of coherence in the criminal law’s current approach. This issue, paired with the practical limitations placed on the law by a struggling criminal justice system, historically inept at recognising the experiences of women, compounds to create a wider picture of domestic abuse law that is failing victim-survivors.
This thesis offers an in-depth critical analysis of the role of the criminal law in cases of domestic abuse through a combination of doctrinal and socio-legal research. The approach is novel as there is a growing academic trend towards moving away from the criminal law as a response to domestic abuse, expressed by Michele Burman, who considers some limitations on the impact of creating new law. This thesis develops the argument that a new domestic abuse offence could be beneficial to collate current piecemeal criminal law and expand its applicability and reach.
This argument draws upon a broad range of literature, including Jonathan Herring’s book ‘Domestic Abuse and Human Rights’, which explains that, thus far, the law in England and Wales has taken an incremental approach in addressing cases of domestic abuse. The importance of a new criminal law offence of domestic abuse is framed against the need to reconceptualise what is viewed as ‘domestic abuse’. This argument builds upon the work of Evan Stark, who theorises domestic abuse as a liberty crime, to suggest that it should be categorised as both a liberty crime and an assault crime contemporaneously.
A feminist perspective, based largely upon the work of Carol Smart and Helena Kennedy, is employed to investigate the role, and failings, of the criminal justice system in dealing with cases of domestic abuse. Further, this thesis draws from Clare McGlynn and Kelly Johnson’s work on ‘Cyberflashing’, highlighting important linkages between the development of technology based harms and domestic abuse.
An analysis of the recent Domestic Abuse Act 2021 is then offered to assess the current direction the law is taking concerning domestic abuse and highlight some missed opportunities
Investigation into How Best to Disseminate Research Evidence to Teachers
Get PDFRecent decades have witnessed world-wide recognition of the value of using research evidence in education contexts. However, despite extensive efforts and progress made to date, teachers’ use of research evidence in practice remains limited in the majority of countries, including the UK. Consequently, there has been a surge of interest in how best to promote teachers’ use of research evidence in schools. In particular, the issue of how to effectively disseminate research evidence to educators to facilitate the utilisation of research evidence has received considerable attention in recent years. Although the literature is replete with suggestions on various routes of dissemination, insufficient attention has been directed towards causal evidence concerning how to best disseminate research evidence to teachers.
Therefore, this study set out to investigate how to resolve this challenge by evaluating a promising dissemination approach to getting evidence into use in schools. The study first considered existing evidence on the most effective ways of disseminating research evidence to teachers. To achieve this, a large-scale systematic review was conducted. The review initially identified 68,817 records, 24 of which were eventually included in the analysis. However, only a few studies in the review generated high-quality evidence. Descriptive and narrative analyses were performed to present the findings. The results from the review support the rationale of the current study, and demonstrate a lack of robust research evidence on the various approaches for disseminating research evidence to teachers. The review findings indicated that passive dissemination approaches, such as simply making research summaries and evidence-based resources available to teachers, were not an effective means to get evidence into use and improve student attainment. Compared to other approaches in the review, embedding evidence in the curriculum, technology-supported routes and active multi-component approaches were found to be more promising.
For the impact evaluation component of the study, workshop training with supporting evidence-based resources, classified as an active multi-component dissemination approach in the review, was chosen as an intervention to disseminate research evidence to teachers. A randomised controlled trial (RCT) was conducted to investigate the impact of this intervention on teachers’ attitudes towards research evidence, and their use of research evidence in practice. The researcher recruited nine primary schools located in England, to be randomly allocated for the treatment (n=4) and a control group (n=5). A total of 46 teachers (treatment 25, control 21) from these schools participated in the evaluation at the outset. Data was collected via a pre- and post-survey consisting of 15 questions regarding attitudes and 18 questions regarding research use. The survey also involved additional questions about the teachers’ demographic characteristics to ascertain whether the results differed by subgroup. All teachers (n=46) completed a pre-survey at the outset. The evaluation was then unexpectedly subject to considerable dropout between the pre-survey and post-survey phases due to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns. Of the original 46 teachers, 25 completed both the pre- and post-surveys. Therefore, readers should interpret the trial results with caution, particularly in relation to the subgroups. The data from the pre-post survey was analysed item by item. The study presented gain scores for each item, based on changes in the pre- to post-survey mean scores. The differences in the changes between the treatment and control groups are shown as effect sizes.
The study also examined teachers’ attitudes towards research evidence, and their (self-reported) use of research evidence in practice prior to the intervention. Analysis of the pre-survey results was undertaken for all 46 teachers. The results from the pre-survey demonstrated that although teachers’ general attitudes towards research evidence may be considered positive, their (self-reported) use of research evidence was comparatively limited. The results provided by the subgroups indicated that headteachers/principals were more likely than classroom teachers to report using research evidence in schools in all areas.
The results of the impact evaluation were not encouraging in terms of teachers’ attitudes towards research evidence. After the treatment, teachers made positive improvements in their (self-reported) use of research in some respects. From an overall perspective, however, there was no convincing evidence of any beneficial impact on teachers (self-reported) use of research evidence following the intervention. The training undertaken by the intervention groups emphasised the importance of judging the quality of research evidence, which may have led the teachers to be increasingly sceptical of all research evidence, rather than encouraging discrimination between robust and weak evidence. The training might be better on how to use robust research evidence rather than how to identify it. The intervention approach should ideally be evaluated by further studies involving a large-scale RCT, with lower dropout.
The results of the impact evaluation among the small subgroups were found to be mixed. However, the results by experience and age were stronger, compared to the other subgroups. The intervention improved less experienced teachers’ attitudes towards research evidence in some respects. In terms of research use, the intervention had a bigger harmful, or less beneficial impact on older teachers than younger teachers in most respects. This shows that the effectiveness of a dissemination approach may differ according to teachers’ demographic characteristics. Given this finding, and the pre-survey results indicating that teachers’ use of research evidence in practice may differ according to subgroups, researchers and educators should account for teachers’ demographic characteristics more than happens currently, while addressing issues in evidence-based practice.
Overall, there is a need for further research on how best to disseminate research evidence to teachers. Further studies may benefit from the findings of the current study, particularly the systematic review. They should test the effectiveness of the following dissemination approaches: embedding evidence in curriculum, technology-supported routes, and active multi-component approaches.
In conclusion, this thesis demonstrates that educators should be aware that getting research evidence into use is not a straightforward process. Research providers and funders should focus on more comprehensive and advanced dissemination approaches, such as embedding evidence into curriculum and technology-supported routes. Educators may also address whether we can reasonably ask teachers to judge the quality of the research evidence provided. Teachers may instead be given evidence whose quality has already been judged, perhaps by research centres or intermediates, and found to be robust, and then implement these
Analytic QCD Amplitudes using Finite Field Evaluation Techniques
Get PDFIn this thesis we present the analytic expressions of different high-multiplicity one-loop scattering amplitudes in Quantum Chromodynamics. The scattering amplitudes are decomposed into combinations of colour-ordered amplitudes. The colour-ordered amplitudes are represented as scalar integrals multiplied by coefficients, which are functions of the kinematics of the external particles. We parametrised the kinematics using momentum-twistor variables, in order to express the coefficients as rational functions. We found the analytic form of the rational coefficients by employing numerical interpolation techniques, which make it possible to reconstruct analytic expressions by sampling their value over finite fields. We computed the expressions of the one-loop corrections to
up to second order in the dimensional regulator. We also computed the expressions of the Maximally-Helicity-Violating six-gluon one-loop amplitudes in an arbitrary number of dimensions. We studied different techniques for optimising the reconstruction process, developing original methods for directly reconstructing polynomial expressions of high degree into simpler, partial-fractioned forms
From Pathology to Transformation: A Technophilosophy of Addiction
Get PDFDespite advances in the disciplines of psychology and neuroscience, contemporary addiction theories often provide contradicting perspectives on the phenomenon. The dominant view among the neuroscientific and the medical communities is that addiction is a brain-disease caused by the individual’s chronic exposure to the effects of psychoactive substances. However, critics have challenged the premise that addiction is a disease, while emphasizing the role played by the environment in the genesis of the problem. Although both views have their merits, the persistent dualism ‘individual-environment’ creates a theoretical chasm that often seems unbridgeable. This dissertation seeks to address this problem by introducing a third term in the dualist conceptualisation of addiction. More specifically, I aim to investigate the ways the use and misuse of psychotropic substances and other potentially addictive activities constitute forms of engagement with technical artefacts that mediate the relationship between the individual and the environment. Drawing from Bernard Stiegler’s work, I argue that the evolution of our species was influenced by the use of substances and other potentially addictive behaviours that transformed our mind and body. Through a close reading of Canguilhem’s The Normal and the Pathological (1966) and Stiegler’s symptomatology of contemporary societies, I conceptualise addiction as a case of pathological automation of the psychical apparatus, which is produced by the individual’s engagement with the psychotropic properties of technical artefacts in the context of environmental pressures that make addiction a dominant mode of relating to the world. I then proceed to explore questions of recovery by examining the relationship between autonomy and agency in addiction, the practices of Alcoholics Anonymous as a form of automation of the mind, and the potential of artistic endeavours as technologies of individual and collective recovery. The study concludes with a consideration of the promises and the limitations of a technophilosophy of addiction
Alkaline Hydrolysis: The Future of British Death-Styles
Get PDFThis research traces funerary change in a rapidly changing social world and principally concerns the introduction of alkaline hydrolysis (AH) as a new funerary custom in the United Kingdom (UK). It is the first full study of AH in the British context, completed in early 2023, on the cusp of AH’s introduction for the first time in the UK. Framed by the global climate crisis, the thesis considers the historical, sociocultural, and worldview context of contemporary Britain in order to assess how British death-styles may soon shift to become more sustainable in line with sustainable lifestyles. The thesis traces funerary change over the last three centuries in the UK, considers how funerary activities fit within the environmental discourse, and assesses how British worldviews influence choice of funeral. Presenting findings from currently unique fieldwork in the USA, the research examines how AH may be offered as a funerary option in the contemporary British context. By considering the levels of British popular awareness of funerary innovations, including practices associated with funerary ‘waste’ and the availability of different funerary options, the research proposes how better public education of funerary innovations may occur. Ultimately, the thesis argues that life- and death-styles are increasingly aligning in the contemporary British context, framed by contemporary environmental concern and the influence of personal worldview. The research argues that contemporary British funerary choices are dictated by a diverse range of considerations and thus religious worldviews can no longer be described as overarchingly having the most permeating influence on British funerary choices. As such, as an environmental alternative to contemporary burial and cremation practices, the research argues that AH is likely to be adopted in the UK as an environmental and economical form of body disposal, primarily by those who currently choose cremation for non-religious reasons
Pollen analysis at Loch nan Eala, western Scotland: environmental history during the Neolithic and Bronze Age.
Get PDFThis project uses palynological investigations of sediment sequences as a means of reconstructing
both environmental changes and also potential human impact on landscapes through the Late
Neolithic to the late Bronze Age in the area of the western Scottish Highlands
Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo: authorship, canonicity, and originality in the workshop of Velázquez
No full textSpanish art has long been straightjacketed by a series of six names: El Greco, Ribera, Velázquez, Murillo, Goya, and Picasso. Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo (ca. 1612–1667) is notably absent, which is astonishing given that his paintings occupy the upper half of one of the most important Spanish artworks, Velázquez’s Las Meninas. However, Mazo has been merely a footnote in Spanish Art History. He is literally a footnote in Jonathan Brown’s seminal Painting in Spain 1500–1700 (1998), where the author claims that Mazo’s monograph is necessary for the development of Spanish art. Curiously, one does not exist, as no extensive research on the painter has been published. This is surprising, given that Mazo was portraitist to the Spanish royal family, a renowned copyist, and a skilled landscape painter. He painted one of the three known seventeenth-century Spanish group portraits (along with Las Meninas) and produced prized religious paintings. Nevertheless, he is still a vastly under-researched artist from Velázquez’s workshop. Using Mazo as a case study, this thesis provides further insight into the artistic context of early modern Spain, touching on such broader issues in the humanities as authorship, canonicity, and originality. The project investigates the scope of Mazo’s work and influence in Spanish art from the seventeenth century onwards by exploring the tensions between canonical and non-canonical artists, reconsidering what constitutes an ‘original’ artwork, and addressing the question: ‘What’s in a name?
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