CentER Society Prize 2008
In 2008, the Prize was awarded for the CentER Ph.D. thesis that best illustrates Tilburg University's motto: "Understanding Society". The winner was announced during CentER Society's second lustrum celebration on Friday 28 November 2008.
And the winner was.....
Rita Coelho do vale
Voting was open to all graduate school alumni, not just members of CentER Society.
The nominees were (in alphabetical order):
- Jetske Bouma, Institute for Environmental Studies, Amsterdam, Voluntary Cooperation in the Provision of a Semi-Public Good. Community-Based Soil and Water Conservation in Semi-Arid India
- Rita Coelho do Vale, Catholic University of Portugal, Consumption Breakdowns: On Avoiding and Embracing Temptations
- Luuk van Kempen, Centre for International Development Issues Nijmegen (CIDIN), Status Consumption and Poverty in Developing Countries
- Judith Lammers, Amsterdam Institute for International Development (AIID), HIV/AIDS, Risk and Intertemporal Choice
- Marina Velikova, Department of Radiology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Monotone Models for Prediction in Data Mining
Ph.D. 2008, Voluntary Cooperation in the Provision of a Semi-Public Good. Community-Based Soil and Water Conservation in Semi-Arid India
Supervisors: Aart de Zeeuw, Erwin Bulte, Daan van Soest
Abstract:
Community-based projects have become one of the fastest growing mechanisms of development assistance, the World Bank's portfolio alone being estimates at USD 7 billion. Evidence of whether communities are successful in managing semi-public structures is scarce, however, and little is known as to how the effectiveness of community-based approaches might be improved. This dissertation analyses the question whether communities in India's semi-arid tropics can be expected to voluntarily maintain semi-public investments in soil and water conservation. The analysis suggests that this largely depends on the net benefits of conservation, determined by factors like emerging labor markets, water scarcity and irrigation access, and community characteristics, like village trust-levels and inequality. In order to improve the effectiveness of community-based soil and water conservation it is important to better target investments to homogeneous communities and built consensus regarding investment maintenance at the village scale. Also, basin-scale coordination is required to avoid negative externalities downstream. Household survey and experimental data were collected in close cooperation with several Indian non-governmental organizations active in soil and water conservation.
For most of the research (2002-2005), Jetske was based in India, at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).
Current Position: Researcher, Institute for Environmental Studies, Amsterdam
The Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) is an interdisciplinary research institute of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. At IVM, Jetske focuses on research linking development and conservation, considering issues like socio-economic vulnerability, natural resource management and institutional change. Currently, she is involved in a large project regarding the incentives, preferences and constraints for participatory biodiversity protection and in a study assessing the value of information for environmental resource management. In her research, she closely cooperates with other disciplines and with policy-makers and practitioners in the field.
Ph.D. 2007, Consumption Breakdowns: On Avoiding and Embracing Temptations
Supervisors: Rik Pieters, Marcel Zeelenberg
Abstract:
Self-regulation is a complex process that involves consumers' persistence, strength, motivation, and commitment in order to be able to override short-term impulses. In order to be able to pursue their long-term goals, consumers typically need to forgo immediate pleasurable experiences that are detrimental to reach their overarching goals. Although this sometimes involves resisting simple and small temptations, it is not always easy, since the lure of momentary temptations is pervasive. In addition, consumers' beliefs play an important role determining strategies and behaviors that consumers consider acceptable to engage in, affecting how they act and plan actions to attain their goals. This dissertation investigates adequacy of some beliefs typically shared by consumers about the appropriate behaviors to exert self-regulation, analyzing to what extent these indeed contribute to the enhancement of consumers' ability to exert self-regulation.
Current Position: Assistant professor - School of Economics & Management, Catholic University of Portugal
Rita was assistant professor of marketing at ISEG-Economics and Business School in Lisbon between 2007-2008. She started a new position at Catholic University of Lisbon as of 1st September 2008. Since her PhD defense, Rita has continued her work on self-regulation, impulsive buying, and packaging influences on consumers' decision-making. Rita has recently seen her work acclaimed when she won the Franco Nicosia Prize for the best competitive paper presented at North American Association for Consumer Research Conference 2007, and when one of her papers was accepted in the Journal of Consumer Research as the lead article in the special issue on welfare implications of marketing.
Ph.D. 2005, Status Consumption and Poverty in Developing Countries
Supervisor: Jeffrey James
Abstract:
This thesis investigates the scope, nature and welfare effects of status consumption by the poor in developing countries, a phenomenon that is virtually unexplored in the development economics literature. It addresses questions such as: why do the poor buy status-intensive goods, while they suffer from inadequate levels of basic needs satisfaction? Is it because they are willing to pay extra for a good if it displays a well-known logo of a Western brand? What role do counterfeit goods play in status consumption by the poor? And do Western brand-name goods consumed by others provoke envy in poor observers? Answers to these questions are sought by the collection of primary data and the use of a variety of methodologies and techniques, including experiments, regression analysis and discriminant analysis.
Current Position: Researcher/Lecturer, Centre for International Development Issues Nijmegen (CIDIN), Radboud University Nijmegen
CIDIN is an interdisciplinary academic institute addressing issues of inequality, poverty, development and empowerment. As part of the Social Sciences Faculty of Radboud University, it offers a degree program in Development Studies.
Luuk's current research assesses the impact of selected development interventions, in particular non-governmental projects in the area of health education (Ghana and Peru) and women empowerment (India). The focus extends beyond conventional impact indicators and encompasses the effects on subjective well-being of the beneficiaries and the latter's acquisition of capabilities.
Ph.D. 2008, HIV/AIDS, Risk and Intertemporal Choice
Supervisor: Lex Meijdam
Abstract:
This dissertation is one of the first attempts to measure the effect of the AIDS epidemic on saving and risk behavior of individuals. It provides insights for designing policies, both for prevention and for improving the economic situation of HIV affected households and society as a whole. One of the major findings is that the saving behavior of individuals in HIV affected countries is influenced differently according to various stages of the epidemic. Contrary to earlier assumptions, during a well-established AIDS epidemic savings may rise as people start anticipating illness related costs, the HIV anticipatory saving motive. Experimental data collected in South Africa show that HIV positive individuals do not save enough to offset the expected future illness related costs, and that unprotected sexual behavior appears to be partly an economic decision explicable by individual risk and time preferences. Therefore, education on prevention methods alone is not sufficient to prevent the further spread of HIV. Informing individuals on both the actual infection risk and the actual economic costs, e.g. the reduced future consumption possibilities, will further reduce unprotected sexual behavior and stimulate anticipatory savings. The latter will increase the coping possibilities of individuals that do contract the virus, improving social welfare in the countries hardest hit.
Current Position: Post-Doc at the Amsterdam Institute for International Development (AIID), University of Amsterdam.
The AIID is organizing large-scale household surveys in various African countries in order to measure the impact of subsidized health insurance (including HIV treatment) for low-income families. Judith has been involved in organizing and implementing these surveys in Namibia and Nigeria. Current research aims at understanding the spread of HIV and measuring its consequences for society. The research includes analyzes on health, financial, and risk characteristics complemented with HIV knowledge and behaviors of (non)-insured individuals.
Ph.D. 2006, Monotone Models for Prediction in Data Mining
Supervisors: Prof.dr.ir. Hennie Daniëls, Prof.dr. Jack Kleijnen, Dr. Ad Feelders
Abstract:
The objective of data mining is knowledge discovery from large databases. In many decision problems, domain-specific knowledge is represented in terms of constraints, which need to be preserved in computerized models. One common type is the monotonicity constraint stating that the target attribute should increase with each or some of the explanatory attributes. This dissertation studies the incorporation of monotonicity constraints into a data mining process. Monotonicity constraints are enforced at two stages--data preparation and data modeling. The main contributions of the research are a novel procedure to test the degree of monotonicity of a real data set, a greedy algorithm to transform non-monotone into monotone data, and extended and novel approaches for building monotone decision models. The results from simulation and real case studies show that enforcing monotonicity can considerably improve knowledge discovery and facilitate the decision-making process for end-users by deriving more accurate, stable and plausible decision models.
Current Position: Postdoc researcher in the project "Bayesian Decision Support in Medical Screening", http://rdwww.extern.umcn.nl/index.php/B-SCREEN, Department of Radiology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, The Netherlands
Mammographic screening programs have been established as an effective way to reduce mortality from breast cancer. In breast cancer screening, radiologists select a small percentage of women for referral, based on detected suspicious abnormalities. To maintain low false positives, radiologists do not refer all abnormalities they see. Consequently, not all cancers initially detected are acted upon because of interpretation failure. There is evidence that computer-aided detection (CAD) of abnormalities in mammograms can be of help to radiologists in interpreting whether an abnormality is malignant or benign. With the digitization of the Dutch breast cancer screening, a large database of breast cancer cases will become available in a few years. This provides a unique opportunity for the development of decision-support in this domain. In the B-SCREEN project, the aim of the research is to use probabilistic approaches such as Bayesian networks and Bayesian classifiers to further address the problem of interpretation failures by radiologists. Interpretation of abnormalities requires more medical background knowledge than is currently taken into account in CAD systems. This shortcoming is addressed in this project by a tight collaboration between radiologists and computer scientists.
Global / English