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AbstractDespite the growing attention given to the effects of brief interruptions on consumers' judgments and choices, the cognitive processes that underlie for its effects are not yet fully understood. The lack of a unifying mechanism that accounts for previous findings limits the strategic response to interruptions by managers and consumers. This research addresses this gap through a series of studies which reveal that brief interruptions increase the psychological distance that decision makers feel from the task at hand, which impacts the judgments and choices they make. Four experiments investigate the effects of brief interruptions through the use of different interruptions, different participant pools, and different focal tasks. Together, the findings make contributions to the growing literature in interruptions and Construal Level Theory. They also provide managers and decision‐makers with a better understanding of how common, brief interruptions can impact preferences, product choices and consumers' willingness to engage in prosocial behavior.

Includes bibliographical references. ; Like most developing countries, Uganda works on a very tight health budget and the government has to ensure strict principles of efficiency and equity in the allocation and use of the minimal resources. One of the strategies in the process of improving delivery of public services has been to decentralise them. The district local government is responsible for the planning process, data management, resource allocation and co-ordination with the central government. However the capacity of the districts to stick to the principles of efficiency and equity is not a given. In Uganda, the health system has been further devolved with the creation of health sub- districts. Because there are no clear guidelines from both local and central governments on how to ensure equity in resource allocation at the district level there have been arguments that resources from the centre to the district are not necessarily equitably allocated at the sub- district. The principle of equity that would seem of relevance in this case is that of providing resources to those in most need (most deprived) given the minimal resources available. This study was done to assess how health resources are allocated between sub-districts relative to the level of need/deprivation in each sub district and in the process suggest a resource allocation formula for the district. Using mainly data from a rapid household hold survey and simple additive averaging to aggregate variables to create a deprivation index, the study showed that three sub-districts in Luwero district differed in the level of deprivation and the most deprived sub-district was actually under-resourced. The study therefore showed that there is room for using simple indices in a resource allocation formula at the district level so that budgets in the future are allocated to the most deprived areas hence maintaining the central government goal of ensuring equity in the use and allocation of minimal resources that are usually available.

AbstractIncreasing agricultural yields seem an obvious way to satisfy increasing demands for food and fuel while minimizing expansion of agriculture into forest areas; however, an influential literature worries that promoting agricultural innovation could enhance agriculture's profitability thereby encouraging deforestation. Clarifying the effects of agricultural technological progress on deforestation is therefore crucial for designing effective policy responses to the challenges faced by global agriculture. In this article we review the empirical evidence on these effects and synthesize estimates of future global cropland expansion. Our main insights are that: (i) the empirical evidence on a positive link between regional technological progress and deforestation is much weaker than what seems generally accepted; (ii) at a global level, most analysts expect broad based technological progress to be land saving; however, composition effects are important as low‐yield, land‐abundant regions are likely to experience further land expansion. Toward the future, empirical work understanding how localized technological progress in agriculture transmits through international trade and commodity markets will help to bridge the gap between the findings of local, econometric, studies on the one hand and global, model based, studies on the other.